Scorpii Alfa

Though one of Abidjan’s most upscale neighbourhoods, Riviera Golf Beverly Hills is a residential environment offering limited opportunities for socialisation and interaction among neighbours, as individual houses are protected and isolated by increasingly effective security measures. Totem Architects address this issue in the Scorpii projects.

The Scorpii Alfa project is a “micro” residential enclave built on 2,000 sqm, consisting of 4 small single-family villas with 6 rooms each. The idea is to share a secure entrance, enabling the use of lightweight, openwork fences within, allowing the villas to breathe and promoting interaction between neighbours without sacrificing privacy. The project’s small scale also helps limit the problems inherent to the residential enclave phenomenon when it becomes significant in the urban fabric, particularly the fragmentation of said fabric and the associated social tensions.

From a colour perspective, the grey panels add depth to the dominant white tone.