MARRIOTT paris cdg AIRPORT hotels
The land allocated to the project is being developed as part of Roissy’s renewal plan, at a site close to Roissy Terminal 1 Airport, which aims to accommodate several hotels and office buildings.
The various future hotel projects will therefore be set up along an urban axis, eventually combining the tram, a double service road on either side of the tram, and bicycle and pedestrian paths along the lines. forecourt of the hotels. Our land is located at the eastern limit of this major axis, just before it passes under the taxiway dedicated to the various aircraft movements before and after takeoff: this situation at the end of the axis gives the project total visibility.
The program consists of two hotels designed in two separate volumes: the Courtyard Hotel with 229 rooms and the Hotel Residence Inn with 106 rooms. The two volumes sneak one behind the other and connect by a base, allowing to share some common areas.
Two types of functions are materialized by two different types of volumes: that of the rooms is repetitive, compact and regular, when that of the common parts is designed in a fluid spirit and open to the outside, fully glazed.
The facades are composed of colored modules corresponding to a room, creating a large gradient, from the darkest to the lightest from the bottom.
The independence of each module is materialized by outlines that form a large grid, as wisely arranged.
A HOTEL IN AN AIRPORT
The project site
The particularity of this hotel project is that it is located at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Roissy, one of the largest airports in the world. It is therefore intended primarily for a clientele about to travel, between fl ights, and business travellers requiring proximity to the airport.
The land allocated to the project is being developed as part of the master plan for the renewal of Charles-de-Gaulle airport, on a large site fairly close to Roissy Terminal 1, a site known as ‘Pôle Hôtelier’, which will accommodate several hotels and offi ce buildings.
The various projects have been positioned along an urban axis that will eventually combine a tramway, a dual carriageway on either side of the tramway, and cycle and pedestrian paths. The hotel forecourts will address this axis.
This organisation of traffi c is combined with large planted esplanades, forming a lively and attractive axis at the heart of the airport. The diff erent hotels will be able to make the most of this animation by addressing their lobbies and public spaces, including some restaurants, onto this major urban axis.
Our plot is located at the eastern limit of the axis, just before it passes beneath the ‘taxiway’ dedicated to the various aircraft movements before and after take-off . This location at the end of the axis gives the project a high level of visibility, both from the axis itself, but also and above all from the taxiway, where a large proportion of aircraft spend time taxiing.
The project is thereby visible from all sides, both from local traffi c along the new urban axis, and from the more distant aircraft traffi c taxiing from north to south along the project, with direct views of its north, east and south façades.
The west façade is bordered by a large pedestrian walkway combined with a green corridor, which links the urban axis with the Pullman forecourt.
This side of the site, more planted and private, also inspired us to imagine a fi nal project where all four facades would be seen and experienced, sometimes by pedestrians, sometimes by aircraft or cars.
ONE BUILDING – TWO VOLUMES
The massing
The programme is composed of two diff erent hotels of diff erent brands but designed as a ‘combo’, sharing a certain number of common spaces.
The overall massing emphasizes the independence of the two chains, despite their clearly shared common areas. The project is divided into two distinct volumes that slip in behind each other and then are grafted together by a
base element that links them.
The project is thereby ‘one building’ comprised of ‘two volumes’, making it possible to soften the visual impact of the overall architecture, which sits more discreetly within the site: the project thereby avoids ‘monobloc’ massing and an alignment of more than 80m in a single stretch along the urban axis.
The two volumes are positioned like two runners sliding along parallel east–west axes. Thus, from the urban axis, they are successively revealed to pedestrians, giving a variety of diff erent viewpoints of the overall project.
Each volume is a separate hotel (a brand), which makes it possible to recognize them and to confer on each a distinct identity. The interior functioning of each volume, with their standardized upper fl oors for the rooms, can be totally optimized, with no loss of surface area.
The larger, linear, volume of the Courtyard Hotel, runs along the southern end of the plot, set back 1.9m from the boundary.
The smaller volume, the Residence Inn, sits right on the northern boundary of the plot.
The two sliding volumes are therefore not quite parallel to one another, which creates a vibrant rapport between them and an unexpected play of refl ections.
This arrangement frees up an attractive public space which links into the urban axis. This space will become the distinctive setting for the two hotels, a backdrop to their duet, creating areas for leisure and relaxation for both hotels as well as for the restaurant, with a generous outdoor terrace, a forecourt extended by the esplanade of the urban axis.
A HORIZONTAL READING OF THE PROGRAMMES
The architectural and functional intention: :
We have distinguished between two types of function with two types of horizontal components, distinct and contrasting:
The rooms: it is this component that dictated the precise massing of each building. It is a compact mass, meticulously organised with central circulation and rooms on either side.
The common areas: while the mass of the rooms is simple and compact, that of the common areas was imagined as something more fl uid, open to the outside and more extensively glazed.
The composition of the room masses, which in their lower levels interweave with the common areas, cantilevers at the extremities of each volume of the building. Thus, the volumes are lightened by this play of successive steps that opens up views over the airport’s broad landscape.
It was thereby possible to extend the ground fl oor volumes into these end sections of varying height, accommodating reception and relaxation areas, as well as meeting rooms.
The diff erences in ceiling height and scale in the interior volumes made it easier to split up diff erent functions and create a variety of ambiances, which benefi t either from majestic interior architecture with high ceilings, or from a softer interior architecture created on the more intimate scale of other heights.
A CONTRAST BETWEEN MULTICOLOUR AND BLACK & WHITE
The façades :
The project is the result of an iterative process in which our research sometimes focussed on architectural unity (because the project is destined for a hotel group), sometimes architectural complementarity (because they are two separate hotel brands). The façades play an important role in this quest.
They accompany the functions rigorously: over the bedrooms and their studied composition, the façades are arranged in the form of a vast gradation of tones, darker at the bottom and lighter at the top.
In the lower section, the façades are largely glazed to open up the communal areas to the outside world.
The proximity of the two buildings is exploited to play with satin-fi nish and sometimes refl ective materials. The façades of the bedrooms are clad in panels of powder-coated aluminium, creating a range of refl ections where the two façades face one another. Our aim was to highlight this proximity by a play of refl ections that would give the impression of the colours of one façade running onto the other. This in-between area should be rich in the visual eff ects of colours and refl ections, creating a sort of magnetism between the two buildings that almost touch.
The colour palettes were chosen in mind of the overall site, with more discreet colours for the external faces of both volumes, tangential to the boundaries of the plot. Thus, the gradation is ‘black and white’, moving from black at the bottom, to white at the top.
For the façades that are set back on the site, the colours were selected from a bright and vibrant range: moving from dark red at the bottom, they grow successively lighter through pinks and beiges, culminating in green tones at the top.
This multicoloured effect will have a significant visual impact, but one that will always be moderated by the more contextual, classic black and white palette that covers the façades facing out to the public space. We wanted to design a project that was powerful and original, but to ensure that it was gradually integrated into its urban environment.
There is also the idea of creating surprises, that the building reveals itself differently from differents viewpoints. It appears to change, sometimes giving way to black and white monochrome tones, then suddenly to very bright and unexpected colours. A little like cutting open a fruit with a neutral outer skin to reveal flamboyant colouring inside.
