Read the full announcement. For the last 38 years, she has been based in Ivry β her apartment and her studio are housed in her first built project. Opulent villas, still owned by the state at the time, had been divided into six apartments. Flicking through its pages was her first encounter with Ronchamp, Fallingwater and the chapel painted by Henri Matisse in Vence β the names did not mean anything to her; it was the images that captured her imagination.
From Claude Parent, she learnt that oblique planes open up vertical space. Buczkowska worked extensively in the Parisian suburbs. At Ensemble Barbusse, also unbuilt, curved surfaces let light into single-aspect units. Citadel-like from the outside, at street level it is more reminiscent of a porous and gentle labyrinth, filled with pockets of space to play, rest, or meet a neighbour. Buczkowska was only 23 at the beginning of the project.
Determined to push boundaries, she imposed the use of timber. It was a natural choice for her, a way to insert the project into the suburban landscape, as well as the most economical option β even if the timber used here is hidden in the frames of houses, often covered in thick pebbledash.
In the eyes of the municipality, timber was only associated with ski resorts and postwar shelters. She has been living there, in a triplex, since Her compact triplex is bright, comfortable and it feels more spacious than it is. The desire to let plenty of light in and from different directions translates into acute angles, inclined planes and rounded surfaces β these geometries in turn facilitate visual connections and social interaction.
Instead, she thinks of homes from the inside out, and extends her vocabulary to the outdoors, the communal spaces and the surrounding streets. Credit:Atelier Iwona Buczkowska. Preconceptions are, however, often firmly ingrained and hard to overturn. The St Dizier renovation reminds her of the Longs Sillons competition win, when the contractor also asked to flatten the inclined roofs. The architect can only exist if there are good clients, project coordinators, local authorities, site managers and construction workers.
