Hasta La Ideas

QR codes cover the exterior of this former mustard laboratory in Dijon that Dutch architects MVRDV have converted into a call centre (+ slideshow).

A low budget prevented the architects from replacing the existing facade, so instead they covered it with panels that direct smartphones to the website of French company TeleTech.

Stepped timber platforms covered with chairs and cushions create a flexible workplace for over 600 employees, who can log into the computer network and work from wherever they like in the building.

“The way young people often work, with a laptop on the sofa or bed, was an inspiration for the interior design,” explain the architects.

The centre also accommodates community facilities, including an education centre, a gym, a gallery and a projects incubator.

MVRDV have been busy recently designing a peninsula over a lake in the Netherlands and an 18-storey tower in Poland.

See all our stories about MVRDV »

Photography is by Philippe Ruault, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some text from MVRDV:

MVRDV completes transformation disused Dijon mustard laboratory

MVRDV has completed transformation of a disused Dijon Mustard laboratory (closed in 2009) into an innovative call centre with an education centre, incubator and social program. For MVRDV it represents an exemplary project: Transformation through reuse is one of the contemporary issues in European architecture since the current crisis. Completion of the 6500m2 refurbishment into a 600 work spaces call centre for operator Teletech has cost just 4 million Euro. The interventions possible on such a budget were directed towards quality enhancement with maximal maintenance of existing structure and services.

All over Europe buildings are vacant and waiting for a new future. Transformations are usually all about the preservation of historically or architecturally significant parts of a building. In this case the building was completed in 2004 and the preservation act directed towards reuse. The building is a former Unilever Amora Dijon mustard laboratory completed in 2004 and closed only five years later in 2009. The building was in a good state but due to its wide volume not suitable for traditional work spaces. The construction budget was too low to exchange the façade or make serious alterations to the structure. The budget makes literal reuse necessary and leads to less replacements and a better sustainable profile of the transformation act. A fine balance between intervention and intelligent re-use of the existing is the essence of the project.

Above: photograph is by the architects

MVRDV sees this transformation as an exemplary project for contemporary European architecture in times of the current crisis. How to reuse a building which is structurally in good shape but not suitable for a traditional transformation and use? The more reuse of the existing is possible the more budget is liberated for interventions. The unusual building evokes an unusual use and in the end will adjust perfectly to the Teletech work rhythm.

The Teletech call centre has rush hours in the morning, afternoon and early evening, only at these moments the building will be fully occupied by its workforce. For these short periods also unusual work places can be used which would not be suitable for eight hour shifts. The transformation strategy is adapted to this irregular use of the building. The inside is turned into a work landscape and the 600 young call centre operators will have flexible spaces: they can log in anywhere they want inside this work landscape. Different qualities such as silent, open or secluded places are offered. The way young people often work, with a laptop on the sofa or bed, was an inspiration for the interior design: the space needs to appeal to the operators to work the way they like, the space will be informally furnished with homely objects to provide a fun and creative working environment.

Above: photograph is by the architects

Outside the rush hours the call centre operators will have free time in which they can make use of the education centre, fitness centre, a gallery and projects incubator, also located inside the building. A big window, entresol spaces, skylights and a large atrium are used to create a community feeling and allow for daylight penetrating the 40 x 70 metres volume. As these interventions use up a large part of the budget other parts had to be designed as economically as possible. The façade for example could not be exchanged but is transformed with a simple print of a QR flashcode translated into the activities of the company; the façade acts as communicator and signals the transformation. The ground floor contains parking and cannot be inhabited as the building is located on a flood plain. In many cases the budget only allowed to remove or paint the existing elements. The result however is an exciting work space and radically contradicts the usual call centre which is often a series of tedious cubicles.

Teletech is a French service provider with call centres all over the world. In Dijon, Teletech International will experiment with this combination of call centre, education centre, leisure space and incubator to create and maintain jobs in France which are generally outsourced to developing countries. Despite the worldwide trend in this sector to reduce costs and constantly increase Taylorism, the company invests massively in its social policy along with this construction project. The ambition is directed towards reinventing and revolutionising existing procedures to improve customer brand relationships through a better qualified call centre agent. Teletech International believes that a qualitative work space is a part of the solution in creating a higher level of interaction with the consumers. The company will attract, teach and keep high level profile employees on site which can offer specialised and sophisticated services. The new building and the social program are an essential part of this innovative strategy.

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by MVRDV appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Wire: as the shortage of housing in the UK worsens, British architects including Charles Holland of FAT, Glenn Howells and Sarah Wigglesworth offer their opinions and solutions – The Guardian

“I’d like to see more rent regulation and buildings reused in creative ways,” says Holland, while Wigglesworth suggests that “what we need is greater flexibility.”

The article follows the news that New York City are seeking designs for “micro-units” to help solve the shortage of of small apartments in Manhattan.

See more stories about housing on Dezeen »

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on UK housing crisis appeared first on Dezeen.

Balconies of these two apartment blocks in northwest France by architect Philippe Gazeau protrude like a set of open drawers.

Located on a former military site in La Courrouze, Rennes, the residential development features two towers and two rows of houses surrounding a patch of grass with a car park underneath.

Elevations of each building are coated with a surface layer of concrete or clad with sheets of ribbed metal, giving them a uniformly grey appearance.

Balconies are positioned on the south-facing elevations of the two high-rises and feature brightly painted inside walls and coloured glass balustrades.

The completed project provides a total of 76 new homes for the La Courrouze development zone, a growing neighbourhood that covers an area of 140 hectares.

Previously Philippe Gazeau also designed a library with a criss-crossing metal exterior – see it here.

See more stories about housing »

See more projects in France »

Here’s some more information from the architects:

The programme in the context of the Zac de la Courrouze, at Rennes

The BH2 programme is located at the north-east end of the ZAC mixed development zone, in the “Bois Habité” area. It is bounded by the Rue Claude Bernard to the east, and by the Boulevard de Cleunay to the north.

The immediate vicinity:

To the south of the programme there is a recent housing estate made up of small collective housing units of between R+1 and R+3. There is a difference of about one metre between the levels of the existing housing estate and the land.

To the west of the land, the existing sports ground is being kept, and included in the public parkland bordering the operation, and linked to it by footpaths.

To the north, the shale wall left standing defines a solid, enclosure-type boundary with the Boulevard de Cleunay. On the other side of the Boulevard de Cleunay there is a railway line, which is a source of noise pollution near to the land.

To the east, the shale wall demolished during the work to widen the Rue Claude Bernard will be rebuilt along the new boundary. As a former military wasteland occupied by large workshops, the current land is flat overall and the landscape elements and the vegetation existing on the land are of no particular interest.

This project offers morphological and typological diversity around a large shared garden. The great height of some of the buildings means that ground can be made available for a garden that federates all the constructions.

The free layout obtained through the “campus” concept is used to optimise the environmentally-friendly quality and performance of the adopted solutions, and in particular the layout of the constructions with respect to their orientation, the treatment of the well exposed frontages, and the urban composition with respect to the urban landscape both in the immediate vicinity and further afield.

The taller tower block is located in the northern part of the land and does not cast a shadow on the other buildings. Its position on the edge of the site justifies the building’s outline as a tall signal. The two high-rises share a semi-underground car park and are joined together by its terrace roof forming a common plaza. The terraced houses are set on this walkway slab.

This architectural and urban arrangement made up of the two towers and the terraced housing forms a constructed sequence between the large central garden and the landscaped area of the former stadium. These two broad open landscaped spaces leave a clear view from the lower housing units.

Each building offers a particular typology suited to its location, orientation and height, so as to get the best out of it in terms of housing unit comfort. The freer layout of the two tall buildings makes for highly effective optimisation of the orientation and exposure of the frontages. The north front is the narrowest exposed surface area and the south front is the widest.

In the two tower blocks, whose south fronts are spiked with protruding boxes, the living rooms of the housing units open up broadly to the south of the ZAC through loggias/terraces. These excrescences are veritable outside extensions to the living space, protected on the sides with walls up to half-height to cut down noise, wind and sunlight.

The treatment of the three other facades and the top is handled in different ways from one tower to the other, taking into account their height and site location and with respect to the surrounding landscape.

The North tower block, the taller one, is the most imposing in the distant urban landscape, in particular from Rennes city centre. This is why the top section is different, the last two floors having special volumetry: pulled back from the main body, creation of a kind of parapet walk. These architectural arrangements assert the desire to turn towards the city and its centre, even though due to the orientation and the noise pollution from the railway line the north facade is less opened up and more height is given to the south facade, thereby giving the tower a rather unusual skyline. The tower’s main body is wrapped on the north, east and west facades in a smooth, shiny mantle of vertical metallised ribbed cladding covering insulation on the outside of the building structure, in contrast with the more sculptural, mineral appearance of the south facade. On the ground floor, the tower fuselage is set on a brick base on the plaza ground or on the slightly sloping ground of the grassy areas.

The South tower block, which is lower and less slender in its proportions, has a dissymmetrical fuselage, thinner to the east on the inner garden side, broader to the west on the ZAC park side. This differentiation between the east and west facades is also emphasised in the colour of the casing of vertical ribbed cladding which wraps around and insulates the north, east and west facades. The treatment of the south facade, and the ground floor base, are the same as on the first tower block. The rake on the fuselage is continuous all the way up to the sloping ridge. Any different treatment on the last two storeys would have had the effect of making the tower look stockier, being less tall than the other.

The volumetry of the six housing units at the foot of the tower blocks is similar to a typology of houses grouped in threes. They are one-storey houses with sloping roofs opening widely onto the ZAC park, with an east-west exposure so that the two towers bookending them to the north and south will not spoil the view or block the sunlight.

Along the Rue Claude Bernard the housing units between the central garden and the old shale wall left standing have continuity of scale with the existing programme to the south, and a degree of volumetric freedom with respect to the other buildings in the operation.

It is a predominantly horizontal construction comprising a strip of terraced, superimposed duplex apartments. Sited at the interface between the street and the inner garden, the small block is set away from the noise of the street and the new shaft, opening up broadly onto the garden. On the second floor level, a succession of gabled volumes, slightly set back from the main R+1 building, produces an effect of houses set on a shared terrace roof. Likewise, on the west side, on the ground floor of the private gardens, the coloured boxes of the kitchens projecting out from the linear volume give a homely scale to the whole.

Click above for larger image

The two ends of the small block have been given unusual volumetric treatments, with corner articulation for the north part, and the operation’s entrance door for the south part, according to their special siting with respect to the urban context and their position in relation to the other buildings.

Click above for larger image

The building materials and colours:

We chose to restrict the number of materials used, chosen for their aesthetics and durability, and their ability to blend together inside the operation and with their nearby urban setting, as well as their potential technically to meet the targets of passive insulation and long-term economy set for this project.

Click above for larger image

The colours associated with these materials tend to set them off against each other, and to emphasise to a greater or lesser degree certain special features linked to use (loggias) or to volumetric and architectural expression (the tower facades).

The facades on the north tower are covered on the north, east and west sides from the first to the eighth floors with vertical corrugated metallised cladding, and the same cladding for the last two floors. The ground floor base is lined with black brick.

Click above for larger image

The entire height of the south front is in surface coated concrete, its taupe colour verging on rust, likewise on the outer faces of the terraces – projecting loggias. The inner faces of the loggias are in brighter colours, greens, yellows, pinks and reds, to make these “outdoor rooms” feel more like part of the home. On the top floors the solid breast walls on the projecting boxes are replaced by coloured glass guard rails.

For the cladding covering the south tower, the colours are treated dissymetrically: dark green on the inner garden side, metal grey on the west side. The south facade is handled in the same spirit as the other tower.

Click above for larger image

The sloping roofs over the volume of the stairwell on both towers are fitted with solar panels. The duplexes on the top floor are used to build all the technical aedicules into the tower volumes (on the non accessible landing). Only the stairwell volume is extended to offer easy access for maintenance of the roof and solar panels.

The six housing units at the foot of the two towers are sheltered by surface coated concrete shells in the same colour as the towers. Their sloping roofs consist of dark green steel deck.

The kitchens projecting out on the west side are covered with dark green and anthracite ribbed metal cladding.

Click above for larger image

The small block on the Rue Claude Bernard uses the same materials and colours. Surface coated concrete for the first two floors, metal grey cladding for the second floor houses, dark green and anthracite for the projecting kitchens on the west side ground floor.

The south side of the slopes on the two roofs on the houses on the terrace roof are completely covered and sealed by a set of built-in solar panels. The north slopes are made from dark green steel deck.

The rendering from the facade to the corner extends that of the rebuilt shale wall.

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by Philippe Gazeau appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Wire: work finally starts this week on architect Denton Corker Marshall’s design for a new visitor centre at Stonehenge, a prehistoric stone circle in England, after years of wrangling and delay, English Heritage has announced (+ slideshow).

In 2009 the Australian architecture firm won a competition to replace existing facilities branded “a national disgrace”, but plans were ditched the following year by the incoming government.

The design, which was the latest in a string of proposals dating back to 2003 for the World Heritage Site, was later rescued by funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

As well as a low-key visitor building, the £27 million project involves the closure and grassing over of the A344 road that runs alongside the monument and the removal of the existing car park, underpass, toilets and other facilities.

The visitor centre will be constructed away from the stones, with visitors reaching the monument on foot or by shuttle.

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by Denton Corker Marshall appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects AL_A have been granted permission to construct a subterranean gallery beneath a new entrance courtyard at the V&A museum in London.

Bounded by the existing museum walls on Exhibition Road, the public courtyard will provide a space for installations and events, with a cafe and an additional route into the building.

Patterns in the paving will correspond with the folds of the 30-metre-long exhibition room ceiling below, while glazed inserts will let in natural light.

“We’re reimagining the dialogue between the V&A and Exhibition Road,” explains architect Amanda Levete, ”and in doing so, creating a new public space in the cultural and learning heart of London.”

AL_A won a competition to design the extension last year, ahead of proposals by six other candidates.

The project is scheduled to complete in 2015.

The V&A also recently announced plans to open a new furniture gallery later this year.

See more projects by AL_A here, or click here to read more about the V&A museum.

Here’s the full press release from AL_A:

AL_A V&A Exhibition Road project receives planning permission

AL_A announces that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has granted planning permission for the V&A Exhibition Road development to create a new gallery, public courtyard and entrance into the museum from Exhibition Road. AL_A’s design aims to unlock the potential to bring in audiences to the V&A by proposing a relationship between museum and street that does not exist today.

The scheme creates a physical permeability with the formation of a new public space, a courtyard, which will provide not only an additional entry point, but has the potential to change the visitor journey through the museum and to allow them to discover more of the collections. An outdoor room bounded on all four sides by architecturally-significant façades, it will create a place to pick up a coffee or have a drink after work, a space for major installations and events, but above all a space for appropriation by visitors.

The design celebrates the descent to the new gallery as an important part of the visitor’s journey, woven into the fabric of the museum and framing unique views of the museum’s fine façades. Visitors will be drawn to the gallery below by natural light, lessening until reaching the bottom where a dramatic pool of daylight appears magically underground. Descent and ascent have been designed with a specific focus on the manipulation of light and interplay between new and old.

The gallery will be a new home for a full programme of the V&A’s world-class exhibitions. A folded plate ceiling will span 30 metres and soar over the visitor despite being underground. Its design was inspired by the neo-Gothic and neo-Classic museological tradition of ornate ceilings, continuing the didactic role in promoting the art and craft of manufacture.

The structural form and geometry of the gallery ceiling seeps through to the pattern of the courtyard above, giving a perspective of the exhibition space below. The visitor will be aware of the gallery directly beneath their feet. In turn, the structural solution of the ceilings generates the paving pattern of the courtyard.

Amanda Levete, Principal of AL_A said: “This is a defining project for AL_A. We’re reimagining the dialogue between the V&A and Exhibition Road and in doing so, creating a new public space in the cultural and learning heart of London. It’s made particularly special by the V&A collections having inspired so much of our work.”

Work on site will commence in 2012 with proposed completion by the end of 2015, opening in 2016.

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by AL_A appeared first on Dezeen.