Avenier Cornejo Wins AR Emerging Architecture Award for Paris Social Housing

The Franco-Chilean firm Avenier Cornejo architectes, founded in 2008 by Christelle Avenier and Manuel Cornejo, won the AR Emerging Architecture Award in November 2017 for a social housing project at Rue Bonnet in Paris's 17th arrondissement. The building features a brick facade on the street side and refined metal panels facing the courtyard, with winter gardens and meticulously designed interiors. The architects deliberately sought the social housing sector for its willingness to take risks and experiment. Their earlier project on Rue Legendre (10 units, €2.5 million budget) reimagined the traditional 19th-century apartment block with perforated panels for energy efficiency. In 2013, they completed a block at ZAC des Lilas just beyond the Périphérique, a "machine à habiter" for 250 migrants and young workers, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award. In 2016, in partnership with Catalan firm Gausa+Raveau, they inaugurated a complex of 145 units northeast of Paris, including a medical clinic and childcare center, with staggered white volumes aiming for zero-emission living. The studio is now working on a retirement home in the 20th arrondissement, a positive-energy residential building in the 12th, and three large blocks along the Canal de Pantin, while seeking international projects.