Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
The
Center
policy initiated by the city of
: the eco-sustainable Pasteur district and the urban renovation project of the
Saint-Martin district that involves around 700 housing units laid out around a
big park.
At the core of this process promoting our natural and
human patrimony, the city chose to move forward with the construction of this
community center, following a high quality environmental approach aiming to
meet the energetic standards the Passivhaus label requires.
This center being the first glimpse we get of the
Saint-Martin district from downtown, this public facility is a clear sign of
the district’s engagement to renovate and revalue itself.
The community center displays a brand new panorama on
the new "Place d’Aquitaine", located on the entrance of the park,
contrasting with the architectural design of its surrounding buildings while
creating a harmonious balance between scales. Located at the foot of the
windowless gable of a partially preserved building, the size of the project
indeed allows to bring back a balance between the human scale and the height of
the buildings around them.
This disposition offers a new front, highlighting the
intersection between the
Pasteur district and the downtown area.
The facility expands from the ground floor up to the
first floor. Its dimension reaches towards the adjoining gable in order to
minimize its impact. The green roof, that covers the building and reminds of a
blooming meadow, slopes to the side and extends vertically on that wall to
cover and incorporate it, allowing it to become an added asset of the urban
renovation (nd : the flower plantations are to follow shortly by the end of
this fall).
The peculiarity of the building’s outline is strengthened
by its raw wood cladding. The choice of a material clashing from the usual
design of the district aims to reaffirm the desire to enrich the available
architectural offer and highlight the ecological engagement of the area.
_
The large bay windows, arranged in staggered rows,
accentuate the generosity of the indoor space as well as the expressiveness of
the building’s appearance, based on the raw wood cladding. This outside
appearance reminds of a textile pattern, thanks to the use of two different
woods – larch wood and
as a shading effect with light reflecting on each wood panel.
Four
big rooms, in different sizes and shapes, celebrate the variety of the
activities the facility offers – welcoming children from 11 to 18 years old,
association’s meetings, people’s care are examples -. These rooms meet around
an atrium that links them, physically and symbolically to the municipal
services, now mutualised.