Paris panache.

With its striking form and energetic use of colour, this sheltered housing scheme in the Parisian district of Belleville enlivens both the public and private realm.

Sheltered housing, where active, elderly people live in informally supervised accommodation with communal facilities and some degree of independence, has assumed a new importance as Europe's ageing population increases due to demographic and social change. Such dwellings tend to be conservative in form, as well as modest in spatial and economic terms, but a new sheltered housing block in Paris by Architecture Studio attempts to challenge such stereotypes and enliven both the public and private realm.

Bounded on three sides by narrow streets, the site lies in the north-eastern district of Belleville (AR August 1989), amid a dense jumble of turn-of-the-century apartment blocks. The new housing is divided into two linear four-storey blocks arranged along the long edges of the site, linked by a hub of circulation at the south-east end. The two blocks enclose and overlook a narrow strip of semiprivate garden; green space is a rare commodity in this tightly-knit urban neighbourhood, so the presence of a new garden is especially welcome. At the north-west end, each block curves to a point, like a pair of sleek ocean liners nosing gently into dry dock.

The parti is exceedingly simple and economical. Apartments are arranged facing out to the street, strung along perimeter access corridors. The long corridors face inwards, overlooking the garden, and their potential monotony is dispelled by the energetic treatment of the inner wall plane. The wall enclosing the flats meanders like a snake and the doorway to each flat is extruded slightly to create a series of cuboid forms projecting from the curved surface. Each doorway is painted a different colour (the kaleidoscopic palette includes bold red, moss green, salmon pink and intense blue), further enriching the overall composition and clearly distinguishing individual flats. Corridors are enclosed on the garden side by a glass skin, so that the garden elevations are transformed into huge fish tanks, animated by the bursts of colour and the daily comings and goings of residents. The use of colour also extends to the reptilian green copper cladding of the circulation hub that links the two blocks. By contrast, the street facades are more massive and solid, taking the form of contextual exercises in crisply detailed masonry.

The building contains 83 flats, based on a studio apartment model, along with a slightly larger supervisor's flat. Each has a small kitchen, bathroom and a bedroom-cure-studio. The flats follow a conventional cellular arrangement, with the kitchen and bathroom forming a buffer zone against the access corridor. Set in the prow of each block on the ground floor are large communal rooms for social activities. Parking is provided in the basement and there is also a roof terrace, with sculptural timber benches and external lights on tall, curved stalks. Despite the economy of means, the building is both elegant and jolly; it provides dignified accommodation for its elderly residents and invigorates the neighbourhood with its spirit and panache.

Architect Architecture Studio, Paris

Project team Martin Robain, Rodo Tisnado, Jean-Francois Bonne, Alain Bretagnolle, Rene-Henri Arnaud, Laurent-Marc Fischer

Photographs Jean-Marie Monthiers