Hasta La Ideas

Copper-clad panels behind the glazed facade of this gymnasium by French firm LAN Architecture produce tinted reflections of the surrounding buildings (+ slideshow).

Paris studio LAN Architecture was also responsible for redeveloping the surrounding historic central square of Chelles, France, where the introduction of the L-shaped gymnasium alters the route between a park and the existing buildings.

“The orthogonal footprint of the building is parallel to the facades of the high school and the town hall,” the architects point out. “In this way, it helps to redefine and enhance urban spaces as well as to connect the park to the church through a journey.”

Full-height glass panels covering the gymnasium’s facade create refracted reflections that reduce the visual impact of the monolithic form and help to integrate it into its milieu.

Avoiding any typical sporting references on the building’s exterior, the architects instead created “a fragmenting urban kaleidoscope, diffracting and reflecting the image of the surrounding buildings in order to respond with a new, more sensitive vision.”

Behind the glass, timber panels clad externally in copper add depth and warmth to the reflections, while helping to dampen echoes inside the sports hall.

The panels also act as sunscreens, allowing daylight to filter through the staccato gaps along their top edges. When the sports hall is illuminated at night, light emanates from this upper section.

The smaller end of the L-shaped building houses offices, logistics, service spaces and smaller activity rooms with views into the main hall.

Other sports halls on Dezeen include a sunken building by BIG with an arching roof that acts as a hilly outdoor courtyard and a sports centre in the Netherlands covered in fluorescent panels.

LAN Architecture have designed an archives centre with earth-coloured walls covered in steel studs that blends into its rural environment, an apartment development with adaptable balconies in Bordeaux and a black-painted concrete headquarters for a packaging manufacturer in Paris.

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Photography is by Julien Lanoo. See more photographs by Lanoo on Dezeen.

Here’s a project description from LAN:

LAN: Gymnasium and Town Hall esplanade

The agora

The design of the gymnasium and the square of central Chelles was an opportunity to use an architectural project to address urban issues that have been left aside in past developments.

The plot is indeed in a central position between the Park of Remembrance Emile Fouchard, the town hall, the Weczerka high school and the centre for contemporary art “les églises”: a highly heterogeneous environment where all the symbols and powers of the city (the church, State, culture, education and sports) are concentrated.

All these components, in this case, seem more juxtaposed than actually ordered, despite the delicate intervention by Marc Barani and Martin Szekely transforming the two churches into a center of contemporary art.

The aim of this project is to replay this rescheduling, elevating it into the category of an agora. The space, therefore, was in need of a strategic, volumetric insertion and an idea, contributing to the completion of the history and a new perception of the whole.

Urban role of the new building

Based on this observation, we considered the project as an operation of urban reassembly in which the gym and esplanade play the role of articulation. We relied on a detailed analysis of the operation, sequences and the scales of the various components.

The orthogonal footprint of the building is parallel to the facades of the high school and the town hall. In this way, it helps to redefine and enhance urban spaces as well as to connect the park to the church through a journey. These public spaces, the piazza and the new pedestrian street, are drawn in a conventional manner: regular, surrounded and defined by buildings. An urban object, a “catalyst” of views.

Once the volumes were constructed, the challenge of the architectural project has resided in the renewal of the traditional vocabulary of the gym: very often, we deal with an opaque box, blind and deaf to the context in which it occurs.

Here, we had to escape from the imagery related to sports facilities to implement an object which “lets us see” a fragmenting urban kaleidoscope, diffracting and reflecting the image of the surrounding buildings in order to respond with a new, more sensitive vision.

To this end, the facade is composed of two layers, the first (the glass) reflecting and letting in light, and the second (the copper), coloring and magnifying the reflection, providing protection from glass impacts.

While the simple shape and the orthogonal location of the building allows to order spaces, the facades create an ambiguity emptying the building of its materiality, making it disappear. The whole gives an impression of lightness and magic. At night, the game is reversed.

The gym, with its style and footprint, aims to be the symbol of a new vision of the city.

Internal organization

Once the urban strategy and the treatment of the facades were defined, the simplicity of the volumes allowed to turn the spatial organization of the gym into an efficient and functional area.

The technical system used for the envelope is simple: a steel structure, the bottom of the glass facades made of a concrete wall insulated by an indoor copper cladding. This double skin provides an ideal sound insulation. The copper, plated on timber, absorbs noise and reduces resonance in high volume areas such as multisport halls. The realization of this project is also a good example of an eco-construction. A project based on the logic of eco-construction

Thermal insulation

Ranked at the Very High Energy Performance (THPE) level, the building ensures a high level of comfort thanks to the inertia of its insulated concrete walls that contribute to cooling in summer and limited heat loss in winter. It is reinforced by the presence of night ventilation in the spaces. The system used consists of a power plant processing dual-flow air recovering energy from exhaust air. Each façade is equipped with a glazing area of 2.28 m2, STADIP 44.2 “securit” type, on the external side and tempered glass (8 mm), with a 14mm argon heat-resistant blade.

Heating
The site is directly connected to the city’s geothermal heat network. A heating programmer prior to space occupancy is also implemented. The heat distribution ensures the needs of hot water and heating the gym, an extension, changing rooms and circulation spaces.

Electricity

Thirty-two photovoltaic modules with an output of 7360 Watts, or 6600 VA for resale to EDF, have been installed.

Water management
Outside, the rainwater recovery system works together with the green roof. It supplies the gymnasium’s sanitary areas and the surrounding greenery.

Lighting

The building receives natural light through large windows on the curtain wall and roof. It is emphasized by the external presence of a LED light recessed floor. The access points are marked by candelabra. Presence detectors are being used in all interiors, except for the great hall, optimizing power management based on attendance.

Programme: Gymnasium and redesign of the Town Hall square
Client: City of Chelles
Location: Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, Chelles (77)
Budget: Gymnasium: € 4,34 M. excl. VAT, Esplanade € 967,000 excl. VAT.
Project area: Gymnasium 2 322 m², Esplanade 2,857 m²
Completion: Gymnasium: January 2012 Esplanade: October 2012
Team: LAN Architecture (lead architect), BETEM (TCE), Isabelle Hurpy (HEQ)

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in Chelles by LAN Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

French architect Emmanuelle Weiss has added a contrasting dark brick extension to a red brick house outside Lille (+ slideshow).

Weiss wanted to create a contemporary extension, but also respect the traditional materials palette. “The chosen materials are an homage to the existing house, but stay in a modern urban context,” the architect explained.

Unlike the original building, which has a vernacular roof, the extension features an asymmetric roofline that slopes upwards at two opposite corners of the building to form a butterfly shape.

The two buildings barely touch, so only a single doorway connects to the existing hallway from a new open-plan living and dining room, while two patios slot into the spaces between.

A new staircase leads up to the first floor, where the irregular shape of the roof provides a faceted ceiling over the extra bedroom and dressing room.

There is no connection to the main house from these rooms, but a doorway leads out to a small terrace on the roof.

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Photography is by Julien Lanoo.

Here’s some more information from the architect:

Maison D – Emmanulle Weiss

House D (Maison D) is an extension of a family home in the middle of an urban area on a parcel of land twice as wide as the existing house.

The house doubles the linear qualities of the existing house façade, thus unifining a roadside landscape that was deconstructed before. The extention also doubles the importance of the private family garden.

The House D extension welcomes all the important living functions, private income patio, kitchen and living room, the architect (Emmanuelle Weiss) chose to incorporate on the first level of the extention an equipped sleeping quarter, with bathroom and a well organised dressing room.

The result of this exercise frees up the existing house, wich has mainly become the children’s territory. Also now, the complementation of House D makes room to add a large office area in the existing house, addapted to the professional life of its inhabitants.

The volume, high levels, low levels: “zones” create a dialogue with the existing typical style house. All the volumes in House D translate into its roofline, bringing a richness to the space. Natural light embraces the volume, sometimes directly, sometimes reflected, it fills the complete project and living quarters.

House D is an answer to the existing devision of the main house. Its functional properties talk directly to the vertical circulations of the existing house, it opens up living space.

To link the old and new together, the architect chose to use a minimal contact between both architectures. The new differentiates itself on the outside by two little patios, only linking itself to the old on the interior where the new encroaches into the hallway.

The chosen materials are an homage to the existing house, but stay in a modern urban context. Dark bricks (reflecting back on a modern way to the dark old red bricks typical for this area) and aluminium detailing show subtle hints to thier surroundings.

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan (extension only)

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Emmanuelle Weiss appeared first on Dezeen.

French architects JKA and design studio FUGA have converted a nineteenth century Alpine farmhouse in France into a holiday villa with chunky wooden cladding and cut-outs based on the shadows of other buildings (+ slideshow).

To recreate the rhythms and patterns of the traditional local buildings, JKA and FUGA used one-inch-thick roughly sawn spruce planks, which they had to source over a year in advance. ”Only a few trunks presented enough nodes and few clapboards big enough were able to be pulled from each trunk,” architect Jérôme Aich told Dezeen.

In typical Alpine barns the gaps between disjointed wooden planks would allow air to circulate round drying hay, but at Villa Solaire the gaps between each panel simply let extra light into the rooms inside.

The architects studied the shadows cast onto the villa by neighbouring buildings to determine the positions of the cut-out patterns. “The pattern within the cladding is designed to respond to the path described by these shadows. The areas receiving a greater amount of sun are all the more open,” Aich said.

Originally they planned to cut the wood digitally before installation, but instead found it easier and more economical to attach the boards to the building frame first, then stencil on the patterns and employ a local carpenter to cut them by hand. “The construction marks slowly disappear but the cladding keeps the valor and traces of the handmade work,” Aich explained.

The framework of the original farmhouse was restored, which the architects describe as an unusual practice. “A lot of operations on old farmhouses used to cut out the wood structure of the first level and replace it with concrete structures. In our case, the existing skeleton was integrally conserved,” added Aich.

Inside the two-story house, a ground floor wading pool is surrounded with recycled slate tiles that were originally used to cover the roof.

Bedroom suites and a kitchen are located on the first floor and are positioned at each of the corners, leaving a cross-shaped living room between with windows on all four walls.

The different areas of this room are separated by level changes, which the architects describe as a reference to the topography of the of the Rhône-Alpes region.

“The house is conceived as an imprint of its surroundings,” concluded Aich. “Imprint in terms of landscape and geography, in terms of sunlight, as well as in terms of history.”

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Photography is by Julien Lanoo

Here’s a few words from the architects

Villa Solaire
JKA and FUGA

The project consists in a conversion of an ancient farmhouse into a luxury rental villa, revisiting traditional techniques. This former farmhouse is located in the historic district of Pied de La Plagne, in Morzine. Built in 1826, it was singled out by the municipality as a landmark for traditional architecture.

Drawing on the context: inside/outside fitting

A uniform cladding wraps the whole farm. One of the challenges of the project was to preserve its appearance, while filtering light into the heart of the building.

The traditional technique of decorative cut-outs within the wood strips was used to perform specific perforations within the planks. The design of this simple and contemporary pattern is consistent with the equipment and techniques used by the local carpenter for cutting spruce slats. These cut-outs recall the disjointed battens of the traditional barn, used for drying hay.

Today, these slits bring light inside the building. The glazed elements of the project, which are flush with the inside of the façade, are partially hidden by the cover strips. As they are not visible from outside they do not interfere with the uniformity of the cladding.

Throughout the year, the surrounding roofs and buildings cast their shadows on the façades. The pattern within the cladding is designed to respond to the path described by these shadows: the areas receiving a greater amount of sun are all the more open and provide a certain legibility of the continuity between the common spaces of the house.

This concept of interlocking inside/outside, evokes a lifestyle in harmony with its surroundings and leads to the project being named the “solar house”: a house exposed on its four façades to the path of the sun, perceived as a sundial.

Above: site plan – click above to see a larger image

Finding one’s bearings: a living geography.

The idea is to move through this house between four “blocks” steady as rocks, located at each corner of the building. Each independent unit forms a suite with sleeping area and amenities. Between these four blocks, the remaining space is occupied by a succession of stacked floors at different levels in the framework. This continuum of generous space welcomes the activities shared by the inhabitants: cooking, dining, watching a film, conversing in the living room, warming up around the fire…

Above: ground floor plan – click above to see a larger image

These four blocks mark the house as the summits punctuate the valley. In Haute Savoie, one instinctively relates the farms to the mountains. Again, this symbolic association is translated in each block as it is identified in its facing mountainous terrain, just as the framework can be interpreted as a forest, whose various topographical lines are recalled within the different floor levels.

Above: first floor plan – click above to see a larger image

Revealing the structure: nested scales or “the complex of the snail”.

The charm of the original farm resides in the existing structure. Conserving its overall appearance was of one of the project’s key challenges, which motivated its restoration: It was fully recovered and the original plastering preserved after brushing and trimming.

Above: section – click above to see a larger image

Compressed spaces, expanded spaces. Nesting areas.

In order to clear the room of the nave while meeting the rental house needs, utility functions were closely integrated. A strong contrast results from the scales of the cosy bedrooms, bathrooms and sleeping alcoves, next to the open central meeting space. The complexity of these nested spaces is combined with a similar research in terms of details and materials.

Above: section – click above to see a larger image

Client: Private
Cost: 1.100.000 € excl. tax
Area: 620 m² gross floor area
Beginning of studies: October 2009
Construction completion: January 2012
Program: Rental house – capacity 16 persons
Design Team: JKA – Jérémie Koempgen Architecture, FUGA – J.Aich & M.Recordon designers, J.Koempgen and J.Aich are members of the collective Ferpect
Contractors: SARL Laperrousaz (carpenter) / SARL Yves Gourvest Construction (masonry) / SARL Fourcade Herve (interior design) / Etablissements Guy Perracino (joinery) / Labevière (Electrician) / Marcellin (heating) / SARL CQFD Drouet (shutters) / Florinda Donga (curtains)

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and FUGA appeared first on Dezeen.

French studio Bang Architectes has converted a former peanut factory in Calais into a skateboarding park with a bright orange mesh facade (photos by Julien Lanoo).

In order to increase natural light inside the warehouse the architects removed concrete walls from the east and west elevations and replaced them with glazing, screened behind the layer of steel mesh.

Two new volumes project from the facade to reveal the locations of a youth centre positioned along one edge of the building and a raised platform opposite accommodating more skating tracks.

An enclosed passageway with entrances at both ends crosses the width of the building to provide a safe place for spectators to stand.

If skateparks grab your interest, check out one designed by a skateboarding champion in Germany.

Here’s the full description from the architects:

ZAP’ADOS

Create a signal in the landscape

The operation takes place along a canal in St. Pierre, which is the former industrial district of Calais. It continues the urban renewal initiated by La Cité de la Dentelle (by Moatti & Rivière Architects) located a hundred meters downstream. In this bleak urban landscape, the conversion of the existing industrial hall has to be visible.

The future facility must signal its presence and invite potential users, the young and curious, to enter. The high clearance at the front of the building offers increased visibility of the west gable from the surrounding area. This gable, which has been completely redesigned, will project a strong signal into the public space.

Reclassify the hall

The existing building is a common industrial hall with no outstanding features, consisting of a concrete structure filled with precast concrete panels and a roof of cement sheets. The hall was once a roasted peanut factory, followed by various other incarnations (including a go-kart track) before being abandoned for several years.

Prior to handing and processing it had been dilapidated, vandalised and had become structurally unsafe. The first task was to open the dark hall before curettage and structural recovery. This was achieved by removing precast concrete panels on the eastern and western facades to release through-views and bring natural light into the heart of the building.

Express the new assignment of the building

The youth centre and the skate park extends beyond the gable and form two protrusions, which clearly signifies that the building has a new purpose. One protrusion stands on the floor and emerges from the skateboarder club and youth centre, forming a point of contact between the inside and outside space. The other is cantilevered and a launch pad that overlooks the front square, featuring skaters waiting in turn before taking off.

The two prismatic volumes, like opened arms, reclassify the free space of the front square and act as an invitation to enter. The architectural expression is unified by a common envelope made of expanded metal, which turns the silhouette from a hanger into a prism protruding from a singular hybrid form.

The metal mesh allows spectators to watch activities inside and is gradually perforated from top to bottom. The mesh acts like a shutter, controling direct sunlight and the color is stricking; it is deliberately conspicuous. This colorful mesh protects the equipment as the expanded metal is very resistant and anti-graffiti. It is doubled with a curtain wall to protect users from prevailing winds and reduce any noise nuisance to nearby houses. Outside the building the front square is treated using an orange frame to draw parking spaces, which overlap the textures of the existing floor coatings.

Linking the two programs

Inside the hall the various program elements are organised longitudinally, to optimise the length of the skate tracks and provide an entrance to the youth centre along the southern facade. When entering the building, there are a series of enclosed and heated rooms installed on the right identified by emerging prism. This set is built with a light frame and placed on the existing slab, with entrances distributed along an indoor walkway.

This walkway is fully integrated into the space used for the skate park, separated using a handrail that runs its entire length. It enables “spectators” to watch the skaters safely. The long wall is covered with an acoustic fabric stretched to form large “dimples”. This absorbing surface is designed to reduce reverberated sounds caused by skateboarding on hard surfaces.

The wall is also provided with vertical windows offering views for both users of the skate park and youth centre. A sinusoid layer of large acoustic baffles is suspended from the ceiling to increase acoustic comfort for users. These technical elements offer inexpensive modifications that morph the inner space and hide the unsightly ceiling.

Create skate tracks

The modules are arranged in a strips logically oriented along the full length of the hall. On the west side a raised platform overlooks the front square. It serves as a high point: the launcher. The bowls (rare in the region) are installed at the east end of the hall to maintain space clearance. These complex curved surfaces are works of joinery and carpentry of great sophistication.

In the center of the hall is the funbox. A calm initiation zone is arranged along the indoor walkway and punctuated by modules. The modules are made of wood (not concrete) to maintain the adaptability of the skate park and the reversibility of the original allocation of the hall.

Construction system

• Structure of the gables and volumes emerging: structural steel
• West facade: the existing concrete columns and structural steel are “sandwiched” by painted gradually expanded aluminum on the outside wall and the curtain wall noise attenuation inside
• Acoustic wall on the indoor street: textile glass fiber coated with PVC stretched over two layers of cotton batting and put on a sheet of extruded PVC formed.
• Ceiling: industrial acoustic suspended baffles made out of melamine
• Skate joinery: wood frame and covering in birch plywood from Finland coated by a clear glaze.
• External joinery: aluminum with double glazing.
• Roofing of emerging volumes: self-protected bitumen.

Operation’s name: ZAP’ ADOS
Location: 87 quai de Lucien L’heureux 62100 Calais
Client: Ville de Calais
Design Architects: Bang Architectes (Nicolas Gaudard and Nicolas Hugoo) Engineer: B&R ingénierie
Program: conversion of industrial hall into Skate Park and Youth Centre Floor area: 2 760 m2
Total cost: 1,5M € H.T.
Start of study: June 2010
Delivery: December 2011

Belgian practice MDW Architecture has completed a residential complex in Brussels using industrial materials that reference the site’s former use as a scrap metal dealership (photos by Julien Lanoo).

An apartment building and terrace containing three maisonettes are clad in galvanised steel sheeting normally found in factories and warehouses.

The original street front has been maintained and a layer of steel mesh added for protection and for climbing plants to grow on.

The homes are arranged around a central courtyard with meeting and play areas for the residents.

Wood is used for the terraces, benches and window frames to soften the industrial aesthetic.

Apartments at the front of the site are raised to improve light quality, with parking incorporated underneath.

More photography by Julien Lanoo on Dezeen »

The following text is from the architects:

Residential complex Le Lorrain, Brussels – Belgium

Renovation of the former Brumétal dealer of old iron into a social housing complex composed of a 4-flat building connected by a large common open space to 3 maisonettes at the rear of the site.

Urban scale

This residential beacon project for the district contract « Maritime » consists in clearing and opening up the interior of the plot that was entirely built and making this portion of the street “breathe” thanks to a wide opening. It aims at giving the neighbourhood a new spring through a both strong and suitable contemporary architectural and urban intervention that benefits the community while keeping a trace of the industrial past of the neighbourhood.

Architectural design

The general design reflects a contemporary approach based on the genius loci and on the requirements from the program. It includes different typologies of accommodations: simplex, duplex and triplex from 2 to 4 bedrooms and organised in one apartment building and 3 terrace houses at the rear of the site. Architectural and environmental quality is privileged.

Click above for larger image

Because the site was tightly enclosed by high party walls it was decided to clear the interior of the plot and to raise the maisonettes in order to maximise the amount of light captured and to take advantage of the best sunlight. This also allowed to accommodate a garage at street level and to avoid a total depollution of the site.

Click above for larger image

On the street front, the apartments have been raised and pushed back to create a first visual sequence between the road and the complex. By lowering the eastern party wall the oppressing feeling of the interior of the plot is reduced and more light penetrates into the interior of the plot.

A large circulation area is carved within the site and creates a wide meeting and playing area for residents. Each house also features a private garden and a recessed entrance to put some distance between the front door and the public space.

Materials

The existing street front has been kept and it dialogues with the apartments through the volumes and the bridges/terraces. Hot dip galvanised steel fencing fixed to the old façade creates a vandal-proof filter between the street and the internal space and serves as support for creeping plants.

The buildings are clad with grey metallic sheets whose aspect reminds of the industrial character of the plot. A light alternation of their shade and treatment reinforces the volumes: In particular, hot dip galvanised steel sheets identify the distribution and circulation functions.

The choice of internal and external materials is induced by the necessity of robustness and durability, but warm wooden elements are used for contrast in more tactile areas like doors, windows, railings, terraces or benches.

Another important element of the architectural composition is the vegetation: creeping plants along the street font and the party walls, planted common space that includes a tree, private gardens and green roofs.

Project information:

Client : Commune de Molenbeek-St-Jean (public)

Team : MDW ARCHITECTURE, Waterman TCA (Structural Engineer), MK Engineering (M&E Engineer)

Dates : 2009-2011 Surface : 835 m2

Budget : 1.5M €