Hasta La Ideas

These photographs by Julien Lanoo show a French driving-test centre by Samuel Delmas Architectes, which is camouflaged to look like a fence.

Weathered rods of Corten steel surround the exterior of the Centre d’Examen du Permis, interrupted by black-framed box windows.

This screen provides solar shading for the glazed, prefabricated building while fences in the same material extend to either side.

Framed porches project from two sides of the centre to provide separate entrances for staff and the public.

The architects raised the building off the ground since the site in Gennevilliers, a suburb to the north-west of Paris, is prone to flooding.

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The following text is provided by the architects:

Ioclimatic approach

To build in an easily flooded zone, a friendly and a warm edifice in an HEQ way of thinking while assuring the safety of the site and the longevity of the project.

Site, brief and project

The project takes place along the boulevard. It is used as an acces filter for the tracks thanks to its openwork envelope.

The fence on the boulevard uses the facade system and improves its presence on the way while developping a kinetic effect when you are driving all along the building.

The building skin is constituted of vertical elements, made of strips of timber or metalic slats, regularly spaced according to their function.

The envelope was made in order to solve all the constraints depending of the brief and of the site: solar protection, intimity, modularity of the building, prefabrication, anti-intervention, anti-vandal, environmental approach…

Building & sustainable development

Simple and rigorous volumes allow the optimisation of the way of building, the rationalization of the structure, of the envelope and of the networks.

Implementation of windbreak hedges composed of local species with persistent foliage. Preservation of the existing vegetation. Development of a biodiversity in relation with the site (humid environment).

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The drainage ditches allow to rid the water of pollution thanks to a system using plants.

Brief examination center for driving licence + projection room + documentation + cafeteria + exhibition room + offices + tracks and parking

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Site location Gennevilliers 92, France
Contracting authority Ministère de l’écologie, du développement durable, des transports et du logement – DDE 92
Av B. Frachon 92 000 Nanterre 01 56 38 29 80
Project manager a+ samueldelmas
Net floor area 580 m²+23 000 m² landscaping
Construction costs 2 250 000 euros excl tax
Calendar – delivered in April 2011
Prize-winner of the competition

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Outside spaces delivered in May 2009
Building delivered in April 2011

+ very high-performance Energy
+ puits canadien (earth cooling tubes)
+ solar filter

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Versailles Pavilion by Explorations Architecture	Kindergarten Kekec by Arhitektura Jure Kotnik	Extension to Residence Königswarte by Plasma Studio

The top floor of this office block in Italy by architects Modostudio is screened by faceted concrete panels that resemble Inca stonework.

Accomodating the headquarters for fashion retailer Giorgia & Johns, the two-storey building provides clothing storage, a showroom and offices.

The ground floor has a glazed curtain wall, in contrast to the heavy precast cladding on the upper floor.

Glass partitions across the interior of the building allow natural light to filter through every office.

Photography is by Julien Lanoo.

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Here are some more details from Modostudio:

Office building and logistic center

The project is located in a strategic industrial area, well connected with the main highway which bring traffic from the north to the south part of Italy. The site area is highly visible from the highway, and the client requests were to create a very strong and recognazible facade. The project, even in its extreme simplicity composition, aims to transmit the values of innovation, comfort, technology, relax and brand representation. Due to that, the facade represents the image of the building. It covers over 2000 sqm of company offices on two storeys.

The offices are located in the south part of the building along the short side of the building. All the offices are faced towards the Vesuvio Vulcan and they are on two storeys. The first storey hosts the main entrance hall which is located in a baricentric area. The main hall brings employees and clients to the other departments of the office: marketing, administration, design, product, retail, direction and the showroom.

The offices are designed in order to guarantee the best flexibility. Floating floors and modular lights are able to give the possibility to modify the interior layout of the work places and of the vertical partitions. Most of the vertical partitions will be made of structural glass with the aim to improve the natural light inside the building. The neutral and light colors of the interior materials will give a very relaxing atmosphere. From the office windows employees will be able to experience a beautiful view of the Vesuvio vulcain, thanks to the visual study during the design phase.

The offices will be directly connected through doors with the logistic area of 11.500 sqm. The logistics area will be able to store all the products (clothes and accessories) of the company which ownes more than 100 showrooms in Italy and Europe. The logistic area is divided in nine different areas, each of one will host particular products. These areas have got loading and unloading gates on both sides. All around the building the parking areas allow to host more than 70 cars and trucks.

Regarding the materials, due to the fact that the structure and the main envelope was made of precast concrete, we designed the main façade with the idea of push at the extreme value the use of the concrete. Reinforced concrete panels with a rhomboidal pattern in different sizes characterizes the main facade. These concrete panels are fixed to the main structural façade through a steel frame system. The panels are of 4 different sizes. The position and the rotation of the panels give to the facade a various image. The windows are realized opening a side of the panels which are connected with the main structural envelope through metal sheet plates.

The main façade, will be realized with these particular panels on the first floor, and on the ground floor the façade will be realized in a continuous glass curtain wall. The glass will have a strong low emission value able to give the best comfort inside the office. The facade will be visible during the day and during the night with appropriate light effects.

All the other side of the building will be made by a precast concrete panel with a vertical texture. The loading and unloading gates will be covered with a metal roof totally integrated in the precast concrete structure. The roof will host a photovoltaic plant of 550Kw powered.

Location: Nola, Italy

Client: Giorgia & Johns Spa
Type: Private commission – Preliminary, final design, tender drawings, site supervision | under construction
Building area: 13.760 sqm – offices 2.260 sqm – logistics and laboratories 11.500 sqm

Site area: 20.235 sqm

Building cost: € 5.500.000,00

Year: 2008-2011
Consultants: engineering and coordination; Studio Visone & associati
Contractor: Edilizia Cinquestelle + Canova Prefabbricati
Lighting Systems: iGuzzini Spa.

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Elisabeth and Helmuth Uhl Foundation by Modostudio	Office Building by Personeni Raffaele Schärer Architects	Office building by Takeshi Hosaka

Photographer Julien Lanoo has sent us these pictures of an archives centre designed by Paris studio LAN Architecture, which has an exterior of stainless steel studs set into earth-coloured concrete to reflect the colour and texture of the surrounding French landscape.

Designed for energy company EDF, the five storey building will house their paper and micro-film archives, which will occupy around 70km of shelving.

The building also includes offices, which face north-west towards a field of newly-planted trees.

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Here are some further details from the architects:

EDF Archives Centre

A strategic project providing a social and environmental positive impact on the region. The building fully integrates into the landscape as well as it meets environmental quality standards, a fundamental aspect for the EDF’s building strategy.

This building, symbol of the long term and visible presence of EDF in the Meuse and Haute Marne region, hosts the company’s industrial records.

Within the framework of the Meuse and Haute Marne economic support programme, EDF has decided to centralise all its intermediary Engineering Production Management archives in Bure-Saudron. Until now, these paper copy archives had been stored in nuclear, hydraulic and thermal production units, as well as in engineering units and associated services.

The new centre allows the documents’ organisation and it also ameliorates the storage and the utilisation processes. These archives, on paper-based and microfilm-based formats, will occupy about 70 km of shelves. The building has also a laboratory for micro-films, specifically designed for this purpose.

The concept

We realised a five level, 19 m high building within a plot of 3.30 hectares comprehensive of an archives area covering approximately 1,400 m² and a total surface of approximately 7,000 m². This approach results in:

• considerable saving in terms of the building’s envelope
• improved functionality translated by a reduced number of kilometres covered per year,
• a marginal impact on the landscape (with view points at a considerable distance from the building),
• the possibility of a maximum use of the excavated land around the building’s footprint to control water recuperation and treatment on the site,
• an energetically and environmentally extremely high performance building,
• the creation of a symbol representative of the approach taken by the Mouse and Haute Marne economic support programme.

The typology

An archives storage building needs to have a considerable inertia with a minimal exchange with its external setting. The need for fast and simple site management and optimum storage efficiency led us to develop a simple and rational layout. The building is divided into 2 programmes: archives and offices. The archives’ part is composed by 20 storehouses of 200 m² each; with regulated temperature and hygrometry. The blocks can resist fire for 2 hours and they are equipped with a sprinkling system. The offices’ part is N/W oriented, embedded in a natural slope planted with trees and plants. The offices have an ideal view on the surrounding landscape.

The landscape

Tree-planted surfaces give some advantages: from an ecological point of view the trees protect the building against climatic issues. From an aesthetical point of view – and within an idea of landscape integration – they complete the building by inserting a pattern recurring from the landscape: the “merlons”, narrow strips of land planted with hardwoods. The project of the landscape foresees the framing of the views from the offices by planting vegetable masses. Some framings already exist from the highway in the project’s direction. A game of sequences is set in combination with the architectural plan in order to vary the visuals and to put an accent on the building’s continuity with its landscape.

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Energy

Heat production is principally based on renewable energies and a heat pump. The choice made for the ventilation was to use a double flow ventilation system with heat recuperation. This limits energy consumption resulting from heating and ensures the good sanitary quality of the air. Low voltage luminaries will result in considerable savings in terms of internal loads. Storage areas will be equipped with presence detectors. The high performance of the envelope combined with economic ventilation and lighting systems reduces energy requirements. The use of renewable energies and a heat pump will result in a high level of energy autonomy. The total power consumed by the building represents 29 kWh/m².

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The building’s envelope

To give the impression of a lightweight building in movement, we proposed incorporating stainless steel studs into the earth-coloured concrete cladding. This solution had the effect of blurring the building’s limits and reflecting the surrounding colours and changing seasons. The envelope has a very high performance resulting from the materials employed and the technology used for attaching the concrete facing (reduced thermal bridges). The combination of two layers of concrete (structure + facing) and insulation (30 cm) ensures that the building has a high level of inertia favouring comfort during the summer and reduces cooling requirements.

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The facade

The elevations will incorporate a total of 120,000 stainless steel studs. Stainless steel studs (7 cm diameter and 1 mm thick) will be incorporated into the formwork during the casting of the integrally coloured prefabricated concrete elevation panels. The panels will be 15.65 m high and either 2.26 m or 2.33 m wide depending on whether they are on the long or short side of the building. The 8 cm thick panels will be reinforced with concrete ribbing (+ 7 cm). The complex will be suspended from reinforced concrete walls and held in position using distancing jacks. The elevations will have a total thickness of 68 cm. The facade’s building process was the subject of a patent.

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Technical Information
Client: EDF
Location: Bure-Saudron / France
Budget: € 10,1M excl. VAT

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Site Area: 3.30 hectares
Built UP Area: 6800 m²
Competition: 2008
Completion: 2011
Team: LAN Architecture (lead architect), Franck Boutté (HEQ consultant), Batiserf Ingénierie (structure), Michel Forgue (surveyor), Base (landscape architects), LBE (utilities)
Project Manager: Christophe Leblond

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House 77 by dIONISO LAB	Waste-to-Energy Plant by BIG	Football Training Centre Soweto by RUFproject

French photographer Julien Lanoo has sent us some images of this extension to a house in Paris by French studio Bang Architectes.

Called Heliotrope Raising, the project involved topping an existing house with this glazed wooden-framed structure.

Situated on a narrow plot of land, the original house was too small in size and overlooked by neighbouring buildings, meaning a limited amount of light entered the space.

The architects have extended the house vertically, adding two extra floors and creating a new living space at the very top, which is bathed in natural light.

Photographs are copyright Julien Lanoo.

See all our stories on residential extensions in our Dezeen archive.

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Here’s some more information from the architects:

HELIOTROPE RAISING

Initially, there is a modest little house, totalizing an area of 60 m² on two levels, situated in a backyard plot, in a very narrow area of the 20th district of Paris. Enclosed and humid because of the presence of an underground aqueduct, the house is plunged into darkness as the buildings nearby and especially a 20m high wall cover any chance of light.

Beyond the obvious need to increase the family’s living space, there is also a true a desire to gain light and visual clearance.

The search for light is what guides the design of the project until the genesis of an “heliotropist” architecture. It is therefore necessary to gain height over the old construction up to the maximum volume of capacity, limits of urban regulations, and budget. Naturally, the center of gravity of the new dwelling, that is to say the living rooms, finds its place on the top floor.

The access to the site through a 90cm wide corridor and the structural weakness of the existing building makes us opt for a lightweight wooden structure wich can easily be manipulated. On the wide length of the house, side yard, the existing walls are so fragile that, as a precaution, large “stilts” in glulam will span them.

On the newly created floors, on all open sides, the skeleton of the wood frame wall will be exhibited. Structural elements will be displayed every 80 cm, combined with a filling of a full height volume of glass for maximum natural light.

Structural glued laminated Douglas, extended and narrowed asymmetrically draws a regular vertical grid which acts as a sunshade and opposes a kind of three-dimensional filter to vis-à-vis. This principle applied consistently unifies the created volume and gives it a clear expression, despite its modest size, in a dominant and diverse site. Finally, this technique removes the problem of façade composition on such a small volume.

Internally, the house is organized around a central space occupied by the staircase beneath a canopy angle (regulation impact of a prospect of a neighboring building). The hopper, in decreasing width, lets the light descend from the canopy to the DRC. A small south-facing terrace on the 3rd floor benefits directly from the sun and the view over the colorful roofs of the neighborhood. In the new part of the house, partitioning is voluntarily minimized. The facades are left free to all partitions or doors; we flow along to enter the bathroom or walking closet.

Program: adding levels and renovating a house for a couple and two children
Location: rue de la Mare, Paris 20ème
Total net floor area: 170 m²
Creates net floor area: 98 m²
Total cost: 270 K € (all taxes included)
Client: Private
Project manager: Bang Architects (Nicolas and Nicolas Gaudard Hugoo)
Start of study: February 2009
Delivery: October 2010

Construction system:

• structural and facade: glued laminated douglas (untreated)
• floors and roof: pine wood panels (OSB)
• external wall: wooden frame wall + larch cladding
• insulation: 12 cm wood wool
• window frames: aluminum thermal break with double-glazing 6/16/6, argon, low emissivity
• covering: self-protected tar

Environmental approach:

• compact volume
• thermal insulation quality: wood wool on 12 cm
• no thermal bridges through “all wood”
• structural elements acting as shading in summer
• Low emissivity glass
• window frames with thermal bridges break
• natural light from all parts (except toilets) to reduce energy consumption
• healthy materials: wood, linoleum, wood wool, etc..

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Vol House by Estudio BaBO	Origami by Architects Collective	51A Gloucester Crescent by John Glew

French photographer Julien Lanoo has sent us these images of an installation by Belgian architects Joris De Schepper and Thomas De Ridder at S.M.A.K – Museum of Modern Art in Ghent, designed to give visitors an idea of the museum’s work behind-the-scenes.

A part of a series called Inside Installations, it focuses on what happens behind the scenes of an exhibition and the archiving process.

Located in a large open space in the museum, a plywood box has been built in the corner and is surrounded by shelving units used to display some of the equipment that’s required to prepare an exhibition.

The walls, ceiling and floor inside the wooden structure are covered with documents, photos, sketches and manuals relating to other installations being shown at the museum.

Photographs are copyright Julien Lanoo.

Here’s some more information about the project:

task
In an the 2010-2011 exhibition ʻinside installationsʼ the public should have a view on what happens behind the scenes of SMAK, more specific on the complexity of installation art.

questions
whatʼs specific about installation art? how to show information during the visit of an art exhibition? information as a negative of an art object which effort can we ask of a visitor, can we demand any effort at all? if thereʼs one thing weʼd want a visitor to understand and remember, even without actively visiting the information space, what would that be?

intention
we wanted to work with different accessibility levels to reach people who are interested and willing to do an effort, people who are not willing to do an effort but also people who are not interested. Using architectural themes (space, light, structure, texture and context) we tried to attract visitors and make things clear in an obvious way. we didnʼt want a didactic space. on the other hand we wanted to allow researchers and interested visitors to find detailed information. the visitors decide how much information they see.

solution
all information is being used as wallpaper for the documentation room: texts, photos, video screens, artist sketches, manuals, restoration objects. the information can be organized into 4 themes: research, conservation and restoration, exhibition production, package and transport.

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All documentation is related to installations that are shown on the exhibition. entering the room visitors will quickly recognize the objects, thus linking it to what they saw minutes before. Essential is that all walls, including flour and ceiling are treated in a same way, as if the common museum space has been inverted, turned inside out.

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The amount of documentation and the seemingly random organization represent the complexity of installation art. But when you look further youʼll start to find out that the shown information is organized, youʼll see repeating layoutʼs and document structures, discover video-interview with artists and glass-boxes with art-specific restoration material.

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situation
located at the big central void of the museum, with views on the entrance hall halfway the visit of the exhibition, maybe a moment to rest and look around. not a flexible white box due to a lot of circulation space, but very interesting as a social meeting place during the exhibition. Two benches allow people to rest, talk and look into original documentation folders.

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construction
The room is constructed with industrial shelves and plywood. The paper (laserprints) at the inside is finished with glue and varnish. The outside doesnʼt have any finishing: the shelves, tv-sets, dvd- players, boxes containing restoration material and cables are all left visible. At some point the shelves are removed to make space for a bench (including red cushions). With some leftover shelves and plywood another, bigger bench was made next to the void.

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architects
We are Joris De Schepper and Thomas De Ridder, both architect. We studied at Sint-Lucas Architectuur in Ghent and work as architect since 2008.

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