Beyond a range of private open spaces lies a wide variety of open, intimate public spaces. Although freely accessible, they are not frequented by a wider public, since rather than providing infrastructures, the PREVI housing scheme mainly serves local residents. The spaces are all of pedestrian scale. As a result of this intimacy, the voids are of a collective rather than a public nature, and are well kept by the inhabitants themselves. To ensure their privacy, the limits between the private and the collective spaces are clearly distinguished. A similar observation can be made in the urban settlement of the Japanese roji or more contemporary housing projects, such as the Siedlung Halen in Berne.
The definitive reduced arrangement of the PREVI responds in principle to the competition entry of Atelier 5. A main central axis runs through the project, which unfortunately ended up being very limited in size, without the scope or the importance suggested by the original scale of the plan. A series of cul-de-sacs provides the only vehicle access to the PREVI, but cars can be parked in sight, corresponding to the social prestige of the properties.
A smaller-scale network of paths leads to the various housing plots. The centripetal arrangement of these paths is conducive to strolling around. They lead through an attractive succession of spaces created by the different designs of the houses, and their specific entrance situations, breadths, vistas and lighting conditions. The pavement mainly comprises large concrete blocks laid directly on the earth and desert sand. Instead of each building unit having a front garden, occupants who wish to have a garden can easily remove a block of the pavement to create a small bed for plants.
Bound by the walkways, the neighbourhood has many small plazas. These intimate spaces, almost like courtyards, offer small paved squares and bordered gardens. The borders consist of bench-like prefabricated concrete units. Just three types of elements are combined to produce a variety of arrangements: curved semi-circles in plan or section with a circular perforation. The border, more like a wall than a fence, showcases the enclosed green spaces. These leafy gardens emerge like slightly run-down oases in the desert aridity.