Public Facilities and Housing Pierre Mendès
Against a backdrop of significant land and programme components leading to maximum plot density, the project aims to form ties with its surroundings. The surrounding urban environment is highly contrasted: buildings on one side (offices, collective housing) over 5 floors, and individual housing over 2 floors on the other side. To establish the necessary ties between these two levels of construction whilst providing the required density, the project is made up of folds and hollows in the construction space.
At a large scale, the building appears like a logo in the larger urban landscape; on its approach, it has an autonomy allowing it to be viewed as a unique building. Bright or even luminescent, the material reinforces its role as a marker in a redeveloping urban context. Whilst establishing ties with the neighbouring buildings, the new building expresses itself through calm geometry with perfectly square edges. The building does not look like a simple layering of floors topped off with an attic. More than a simple housing building, it is also an institutional public facility. The imprinted concrete envelope is enveloped in bright brick. The choice of this construction technique has different benefits: energy performance, sustainability and multiple ways of using the brick. Sometimes a classic arrangement, sometimes jutting out or recessed, sometimes present, sometimes absent, or as a mashrabiya, the brick playing with the light and even taming it… Between moulding and texture, the facades' appearance continually changes depending on their position: the shadows created by the interplay of the bricks, changing throughout the day and seasons depending on the sun’s position. The brick itself reacts differently to the light depending on the side, its grain, mattness or shine. It resonates to enhance the large spaces. This technique combined with the mullion framework and generous bay windows gives the building the unity and presence as required for a public building. At a time when the temporary, ephemeral and superficial often cloud our view, it is even more necessary to create situations where we can find some peace. Here the architecture and landscape support this peace, particularly through the materials, their use and sustainability, all nestled in vegetation.
