The creation of the office of an operator of social housing is a particularly symbolic act. For the public and the various partners of the operator, the building should indeed embody and reveal the “values” of Aquitanis. It must convey a symbolic “soft” in several aspects:
– An urban level, by its place in the city and its fabric, such as the corporate image that it returns.
– an architectural level, around the notions of generosity, openness, modernity and poetry, but also rationality, sustainability and economic performance.
– An environmental level, based on a bioclimatic approach and respect for the environment, including the establishment of a system of natural night cooling.
A. An urban symbolic
The urban location of the plot is somewhat special, is by position at the entrance of the new ZAC Ginko and its situation vis-à-vis a discontinuous commercial fabric of poor quality. We have designed this building as a staging one generated by the assembly of three simple volumes urban route:
– On the ground floor, overlooking the parking silo neighbor still study the park “dressed” by a bunch of programs of general services front. It is this volume that manages the stained concrete from the rear facade of the future parking silo.
– developing on two levels, at the corner of the plot, two volumes come close angled space Home seat. This set is the base joint of the project.
– on five levels and a slightly offset geometry, office floors built around an atrium.
This assembly, with its masses imbalance is strong symbolic element of the project. This subtle stacks and offsets different volumes, level by level, generates disorder in the visitor: it is a fine affect the basic laws of gravity.
hollow space formed by these three volumes generates empty founder of the project. The ordering of the masses so the surrounding structure urban space, but also the interior spatiality.
Urban approach headquarters must convey a symbolic appearance of openness and public reception. The first important idea in this concept of opening of the building is free of interference boundaries between public space and private space, the search for transparency, porosity between the built limits … It comes naturally.
B. An architectural symbolic
If there is no sensible limit between public space and private space of the plot, it does not exist visual boundary between “inside” and “outside.” It occurs naturally in the large volume of the main building, it is in the building but not inside … And when you enter, it is to feel like emerge soon, thanks to the great void of the atrium which is the other spatial structuring element of the project.
space lobby and atrium symbolizes modern agora building.This space is the place of exchange, visual and physical contact between the public and the employees of Aquitanis. It allows a panoptic view of the different functions of the program, and thus facilitates the orientation of visitors.
Constructive rationality is at the heart of our concerns. The apparent lame master volume is indeed not structural: they are not as light metals, perforated anodized aluminum sunshades, which are reported in this volume front singularity. These elements are essential in the environmental logic of the building. As well as the atrium elsewhere.
C. Environmental and bioclimatic approach
The project is part of a sustainable development and environmental quality. In our approach we favored the use of passive systems to meet the challenges of thermal comfort and energy consumption.
Fundamental point, the building is not refreshed or conditioning, but enjoys a night cooling system: the building opens the night at the top of the atrium, as well as offices and outward the atrium, thus creating a flow of fresh air by drawing heat inside the building.
concrete floors of the building left exposed and simply covered with a resin is cooled at night by the fresh air of the outside. During the day, the slabs shall restore their freshness within the premises, and will ensure a temperature optimized comfort. The central atrium is also used as an organ of respiration for the building.
A parameter is to control: solar gain. This is why we opted for a protective exterior shading, which is also the subject of a surprising architectural style.
We are talking about building a symbol of the values of an operator of social housing as Aquitanis: generosity, modernity, rationality, sustainability, innovation, economic, environmental and bioclimatic performance.