Pantin to Paris is about the exploration of what it means to be a block in a changing urban context. The Around the Block studio at Ecole Nationale Superior Architecture Paris Belleville aimed to analyze different live, work, culture, and leisure typologies as a way of approaching the challenge of urban growth. Pantin to Paris is not a project but rather a working set of buildings and interior spaces, a block, derived from different typologies, processes, and research that allows for individuality within a collective site. 

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The methods of the studio allowed for a layered approach to defining the block. Resisting the urge to master plan, an emphasis on modeling at all scales was used to conceive different approaches to the site. Using the existing architectural conditions, the urban infrastructure, and developing typologies, the concept of the block began to make itself clear- a system of structures that are defined as a group externally, but that function within an adaptable urban interior. A series of human-scaled buildings and multiple platforms create different ways for the private and public to use the block. The exterior of the small buildings become the interior of the block, creating different zones for circulation, privacy, entrance, and views. 

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Pantin to Paris explores live work typologies by looking at the types of housing that are suitable to the site, the types of work that are needed, the boundaries that communities need between live and work, and the density of the two. The next layer to the block was adding a series of culture leisure typologies- exploring different scales and the degree of public and private.