Text description provided by the architects. The overall form of the building is the result of both a pragmatic approach and a determination to express the future structure’s volume in terms of “a material that fills the negative” of the site in which it rests.
Facing ruelle de la Planchette, its facade in alignment with the street, the building’s upper part bends following in accordance with the authorized template ; thus softening the volume. The exterior skin, protective, smooth, thin, of a neutral color, faces the city.
Facing rue de Charenton, the site’s shifting in form led us toward the use of volumes of surprising proportions, which fold into the roofing, the whole covered with the same material. Inside, the assembled mass is arranged around two courtyards planted internally, the proportions of which are reworked so as to adapt to the standards of the material that is to its need for natural lighting.
The building’s coverings are treated with a playful law in their arrangement of empty surfaces and full surfaces and multicolored vertical drawings, with the intention of discretely diminishing the building’s gravity. This substantial work regarding the various thicknesses and qualities of the facades marked our determination to distance ourselves from a monotonous “establishment” image.
