When people start saying that a neighborhood has reached its "critical mass of ugliness," it's probably a good time to give it a facelift. And that's exactly what architects Hamonic + Masson did for Villiot-Râpée in Paris with two separate blocks of terraced apartments near the Seine River. The Villiot Rappee neighborhood near the Seine River in Paris had reached a critical mass of ugliness.

Each of the 62 flats have three rooms, 66 square meters of floor space, and a compact space-saving arrangement. Even so, tall windows allow for plenty of natural light to permeate deep into the units and reduce the need to use artificial light – which helps a ton being that the city enforces a strict energy code. Also sound-proof, the apartments’ biggest allure lies in their shimmering facade and wide terraces that remind us somewhat of Herzon & Meuron’s terraced apartments in Beirut.

Excess sunlight bounces off the aluminum facade but the colored glass absorbs just enough to give the terraces ambience and shade. A crucial space that residents cling to for a sense of being connected to the outdoors, the broad balconies that wrap right around both building blocks in a fluid, twisted motion definitely help to take the ugly out of this once forsaken neighborhood.

+ Hamonic + Masson