RÉHABILITATION D’UN ANCIEN MANÈGE EN BÂTIMENT D’ÉQUIPEMENTS PUBLICS
The point of departure of the project is the comprehension of the current spatial and construction configuration of the Ancien Manége as a result of an on going transformation and assessing its potential to become an inhabitable civic building with minimum intervention. The project proposes the reutilization and adjustment of existing structural and construction elements combined with selected demolitions, punctual repairs and minimum additions with the intention of utilizing the atmospheric, architectural and thermal qualities of the various parts of the building.
The building is to be accessed from Rue René-Louis-Piachaud via a new pavement that clarifies the urban block, establishing a visual relation with the Promenade de la Treille and a public exterior space in the proximity of the entrance. The main access door for the public is placed on the left side of the building in the next to the fountain, becoming frontally visible when approaching from Place du Bourg-de-Four. Accessing the building from the tower allows for the semi-circular rotunda to become a space for gathering in direct relation with the street, preserving the 1950 concrete structure and balconies.
The lower concrete slab is to be preserved forming a service plinth where all common services are placed, liberating from obstructions all the perimeter spaces with windows to the exterior. The intermediate concrete slab is to be demolished to liberate the large arched openings and obtain a generous common Salle also serviced from the services plinth. Circulation is resolved in two parallel bars aligned with the towers, one of more public nature at the front and one for more internal use at the back.
All new additions are realized in wood, taking the form of exposed studwork partitions that define the large block of services on the ground floor and two large partitions that acoustically exclude the Salle from the rest of the building. The only new structural addition is a new roof over the south wing, result of the demolition of the higher volume in Rue de Saint-Léger, also becoming a terrace on the upper level.
In order for the sale to be occupied by multiple users simultaneously or used as one large room for special occasions, a third translucent studwork partition box can be lowered or lifted to form a partially acoustically and thermally separated space within the Salle. This room is hung from the existing timber structure, a reference to the hayloft and the galeries that used to hang in the Ancien Manége, is lit from a fourth studwork partition that takes the form of skylight.
The project tries to make compatible the optimization of the thermal envelope and the conservation of the heritage values of the building. In order minimize the intervention in the existing timber structures, the existing ventilated lofts are preserved and concealed behind new suspended ceilings including thermal insulation. The thermal performance is also enhanced with the introduction of new insulated windows with multiple operation possibilities form the users.
The character of the additions and the use of wood as a main material allows for possible future alterations to the way the building might be used, understanding the intervention as one further stage of the on going process of transformation the Ancien Manége has undergone.