-
Architects: Debarre Duplantiers Associés
- Year: 2012
-
Photographs:Arthur Pequin
-
Manufacturers: Holcim, Schüco
Text description provided by the architects. What if we stopped zoning? And what if we projected an office building in the middle of a social housing district? The building Aalta in Cenon takes advantage of different economic incentives and of the development of the Bordeaux tramway to densify and create an active interface between Palmer social district and a quiet neighborhood made of small houses.
In this confrontation of scales, the prevailing theory "not in my backyard” is here treated in a different way.
The residential buildings are oriented to both to the gardens and to the streets, but this paradigm is changed through this created space for activities, work, services and exchanges. The office building is part of an effort to bring functional diversity while responding to entrepreneurial issues: companies being attracted by tax-free areas to settle their headquarters for a certain time, they will be changing and the building will have to be flexible to meet these variables.
It offers them greater flexibility in planning and organization, free space with minimal bearing points. However behind its neutrality, the facade has a dynamic urban aspect: undulating through streams, its white shell seems to lead a movement in the neighborhood.