Bocquel Island: Living in a house in the city

"The aim of the municipality of Angers is to bring individual houses into the city.", announces Stéphane Landemaine, manager of Atelier Logémaine. The town hall's intention is to redensify the urban environment and facilitate access to individual home ownership. The Bocquel Block, located in the heart of various neighborhoods, is one of the strategic sites in line with the urbanization prospects of the city of Angers. 

For this project, Atelier Logémaine and GOA, an urban planning, architecture, and environmental agency responsible for the neighborhood's visual coherence, partnered. They envisioned a neighborhood conducive to "living together" and reflecting the image of each of the owners.

Bocquel Island, a strategic site for individual housing

Located on the Capucins plateau north of the CHU and in close proximity to Angers city center, the Bocquel block is a new neighborhood in the making. Ideally served by two tram stops and located a five-minute walk from the hospital, it offers close access to the Nantes/Paris motorway.

Schools, nurseries, leisure centers, community centers, public gardens, libraries... Everything is planned to welcome new residents. “We were looking for a construction project, the location and the spirit of the neighborhood appealed to us.”, specifies Mathilde D., in the process of accession. Many amenities and local businesses will be created or transferred to the plateau as residents arrive.

A true haven of nature within the city, composed of cul-de-sacs, alleyways, and courtyards, the Bocquel block showcases single-family homes in an urban setting. These properties are rare on the new Angers property market and often financially inaccessible for first-time buyers. “The Îlot Bocquel project turned out to be a magnificent opportunity, rare on the Angers real estate market.”, says Cyrille P., future owner.

A neighborhood synonymous with “living together”

The Bocquel Block offers a perfect illustration of space management thanks to housing designed both to respect the privacy of each individual and to offer wide perspectives and depths of field.

« This neighborhood concept groups houses together by block to promote a warm and friendly atmosphere between neighbors,” says Cyrille P.. Living in the Bocquel block means recreating “living together” by taking advantage of meeting and sharing places in public spaces, while integrating into one's lifestyle the individual and collective behavioral changes essential to the energy, environmental, economic and societal transition.

Design your home in your own image

With the expertise of Atelier Logémaine and the GOA agency, each owner can imagine their home in their own image and design it according to their needs and lifestyle.

Stéphane Landemaine indicates that “The projects currently being designed, with an average surface area of 110m2, meet the expectations of cocooning homes.” and combine “traditional frame and wooden frame”.

Cyrille P., currently in the process of acquiring a project on Îlot Bocquel, designs his home according to his lifestyle. He plans a large living room opening onto the kitchen, giving access to the garden through a large 4m bay window, a utility room, and upstairs, three bedrooms and a master suite. “Two elements make our house atypical; access to the house will be via a sheltered passageway and two parking spaces are located under the first floor, like a covered courtyard.”, says Cyrille P..

A collective project affirmed in an eco-responsible approach

Atelier Logémaine and the GOA agency have jointly carried out a real eco-responsible action, from the design to the implementation of the project.

For Stéphane Landemaine, "The builder is able to open up to other professions and work jointly with town planners and architects to jointly resolve the problems of the construction world." Based on this reflection, shared facilities and equipment are made available to the various stakeholders. Shared cabins, delivery areas, and construction machinery and equipment help optimize space and organization on the site.

A home in harmony with the environment and its space, a vector of well-being, modular and evolving according to the stages of life, these are the new attributes that the project's stakeholders wish to bring. It is on these criteria that thematic workshops with builders and future buyers have been established to convey a different vision of today's housing.

Atelier Logémaine and the GOA agency are carrying out several other individual house projects alongside this innovative project, the fruit of their collaboration.

Site information

The Bocquel block is located on an 8-hectare site, divided into 100 plots free of builders and marketed in three consecutive tranches.

Land area: from 150 to 300m2

Land sale price: from €32 to €000

Marketing launch: summer 2016

Start of work: 4th half of 2016

Delivery: mid-2017

Land marketing: Alter company, formerly Sodemel