MVRDV shapes bordeaux’s ‘la vallée verte’ with suncut roofs and a hidden garden
By kat barandy I designboom
Along the right bank of the Garonne in Bordeaux, La Vallée Verte gathers three pale, sharply angled buildings around a green internal hollow. Completed by MVRDV within the Bastide Niel district, the residential project sits between shaded streets and former railway tracks, where the area’s industrial past meets a new piece of city shaped by sloping roofs, tight passages, and planted courtyards.
The project brings seventy homes to the northwestern edge of Bastide Niel, with apartments ranging across sizes to support a mix of residents, from first-time buyers to families. From the street, the buildings follow the rules of MVRDV’s larger masterplan, with smooth, light grey tiled facades and roof planes that continue the district’s angular language while helping reduce heat gain.
MVRDV completes La Vallée Verte in Bordeaux’s growing Bastide Niel district. image © Matthieu Lecouvey
Inside the triangular plot of Bordeaux’s La Vallée Verte, the architecture by MVRDV changes character. The three blocks open toward a circular courtyard, where terraces, loggias, planters, shrubs, grasses, and small trees build the sense of a planted valley held inside the housing complex. Full-height openings face inward, giving the apartments views onto this shared green interior while the street-facing facades stay flatter and more restrained.
The planting works vertically as much as horizontally. Different species occupy different levels, giving the courtyard the layered feel of a constructed landscape, with greenery rising from the ground floor to the upper terraces.
The design team also lays out access routes for professional gardeners across the balconies, using openings in the structural walls and steel doors between neighboring terraces. In a humorous detail, these doorways take on the silhouette of a person in a wide-brimmed hat.
the housing complex gathers 70 homes around a circular planted courtyard. image © Paul Lefevre
MVRDV’s La Vallée Verte follows the logic of the wider Bastide Niel masterplan of Bordeaux, which redevelops a former industrial area and military barracks into a dense urban district. Its sloping profiles come from the plan’s parametric ‘suncuts,’ a system that shapes each building so surrounding structures receive direct sunlight across the year.
In Winy Maas’ words, the district’s roofscape becomes ‘like icebergs,’ while each architect working within the masterplan adds a specific interpretation.
For La Vallée Verte, that interpretation is inward and green. The angled white massing belongs to the public face of Bastide Niel, while the courtyard creates a more secluded atmosphere shared by residents and visitors. A day-care centre occupies the ground floor of one building, opening onto the protected exterior space at the centre of the plot.
three angled buildings follow the suncut geometry of the Bastide Niel masterplan. image © Paul Lefevre
The project also folds into Bastide Niel’s wider environmental strategy. The district is certified under France’s EcoQuartier initiative, and La Vallée Verte connects to district heating while photovoltaic panels supply part of its electrical energy needs. Its streetscape is porous to help absorb rainwater and flooding, an important detail given its position in the Garonne River floodplain.
Parking for the surrounding community is placed in an adjacent above-ground structure, reducing flood exposure and lowering embodied carbon tied to underground construction. Ground-floor apartments are lifted so water can pass through the site when needed.
light grey tiled facades help reduce heat gain across the street-facing elevations. image © Paul Lefevre
the inner courtyard creates a secluded green refuge for residents and visitors. image © Paul Lefevre
This article was originally published by Designboom.