Photographer Julien Lanoo has sent us these pictures of an archives centre designed by Paris studio LAN Architecture, which has an exterior of stainless steel studs set into earth-coloured concrete to reflect the colour and texture of the surrounding French landscape.

Designed for energy company EDF, the five storey building will house their paper and micro-film archives, which will occupy around 70km of shelving.

The building also includes offices, which face north-west towards a field of newly-planted trees.

More projects by LAN Architecture on Dezeen »

More architecture photographed by Julien Lanoo on Dezeen »

Here are some further details from the architects:

EDF Archives Centre

A strategic project providing a social and environmental positive impact on the region. The building fully integrates into the landscape as well as it meets environmental quality standards, a fundamental aspect for the EDF’s building strategy.

This building, symbol of the long term and visible presence of EDF in the Meuse and Haute Marne region, hosts the company’s industrial records.

Within the framework of the Meuse and Haute Marne economic support programme, EDF has decided to centralise all its intermediary Engineering Production Management archives in Bure-Saudron. Until now, these paper copy archives had been stored in nuclear, hydraulic and thermal production units, as well as in engineering units and associated services.

The new centre allows the documents’ organisation and it also ameliorates the storage and the utilisation processes. These archives, on paper-based and microfilm-based formats, will occupy about 70 km of shelves. The building has also a laboratory for micro-films, specifically designed for this purpose.

The concept

We realised a five level, 19 m high building within a plot of 3.30 hectares comprehensive of an archives area covering approximately 1,400 m² and a total surface of approximately 7,000 m². This approach results in:

• considerable saving in terms of the building’s envelope
• improved functionality translated by a reduced number of kilometres covered per year,
• a marginal impact on the landscape (with view points at a considerable distance from the building),
• the possibility of a maximum use of the excavated land around the building’s footprint to control water recuperation and treatment on the site,
• an energetically and environmentally extremely high performance building,
• the creation of a symbol representative of the approach taken by the Mouse and Haute Marne economic support programme.

The typology

An archives storage building needs to have a considerable inertia with a minimal exchange with its external setting. The need for fast and simple site management and optimum storage efficiency led us to develop a simple and rational layout. The building is divided into 2 programmes: archives and offices. The archives’ part is composed by 20 storehouses of 200 m² each; with regulated temperature and hygrometry. The blocks can resist fire for 2 hours and they are equipped with a sprinkling system. The offices’ part is N/W oriented, embedded in a natural slope planted with trees and plants. The offices have an ideal view on the surrounding landscape.

The landscape

Tree-planted surfaces give some advantages: from an ecological point of view the trees protect the building against climatic issues. From an aesthetical point of view - and within an idea of landscape integration - they complete the building by inserting a pattern recurring from the landscape: the “merlons”, narrow strips of land planted with hardwoods. The project of the landscape foresees the framing of the views from the offices by planting vegetable masses. Some framings already exist from the highway in the project’s direction. A game of sequences is set in combination with the architectural plan in order to vary the visuals and to put an accent on the building’s continuity with its landscape.

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Energy

Heat production is principally based on renewable energies and a heat pump. The choice made for the ventilation was to use a double flow ventilation system with heat recuperation. This limits energy consumption resulting from heating and ensures the good sanitary quality of the air. Low voltage luminaries will result in considerable savings in terms of internal loads. Storage areas will be equipped with presence detectors. The high performance of the envelope combined with economic ventilation and lighting systems reduces energy requirements. The use of renewable energies and a heat pump will result in a high level of energy autonomy. The total power consumed by the building represents 29 kWh/m².

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The building’s envelope

To give the impression of a lightweight building in movement, we proposed incorporating stainless steel studs into the earth-coloured concrete cladding. This solution had the effect of blurring the building’s limits and reflecting the surrounding colours and changing seasons. The envelope has a very high performance resulting from the materials employed and the technology used for attaching the concrete facing (reduced thermal bridges). The combination of two layers of concrete (structure + facing) and insulation (30 cm) ensures that the building has a high level of inertia favouring comfort during the summer and reduces cooling requirements.

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The facade

The elevations will incorporate a total of 120,000 stainless steel studs. Stainless steel studs (7 cm diameter and 1 mm thick) will be incorporated into the formwork during the casting of the integrally coloured prefabricated concrete elevation panels. The panels will be 15.65 m high and either 2.26 m or 2.33 m wide depending on whether they are on the long or short side of the building. The 8 cm thick panels will be reinforced with concrete ribbing (+ 7 cm). The complex will be suspended from reinforced concrete walls and held in position using distancing jacks. The elevations will have a total thickness of 68 cm. The facade’s building process was the subject of a patent.

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Technical Information
Client: EDF
Location: Bure-Saudron / France
Budget: € 10,1M excl. VAT

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Site Area: 3.30 hectares
Built UP Area: 6800 m²
Competition: 2008
Completion: 2011
Team: LAN Architecture (lead architect), Franck Boutté (HEQ consultant), Batiserf Ingénierie (structure), Michel Forgue (surveyor), Base (landscape architects), LBE (utilities)
Project Manager: Christophe Leblond

See also:

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House 77 by dIONISO LAB	Waste-to-Energy Plant by BIG	Football Training Centre Soweto by RUFproject

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Paris studio LAN Architecture have designed apartment blocks for Bordeaux where each residence will have an adaptable loggia.

Called 72 Collective Housing Units, the project is made up of three housing blocks, also including shops and business premises.

Every flat will have an outdoor space that can be transformed by residents and used as a wind break, greenhouse or terrace.

Building is due to be completed in 2012.

More about LAN Architecture on Dezeen:

117 Housing Units (January 2010)
486 Mina El Hosn (October 2009)
Marchesini headquarters (January 2009)
Toy Library in Bonneuil-sur-Marne (July 2008)
Toy Library in Bonneuil-sur-Marne 2 (July 2008)

Below is some text from the LAN Architecture:

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The project’s richness and major interest lie in the possibility of inventing an urban lifestyle set in a highly experimental framework enabling the affirmation of new ecological and contemporary architectures.

The diversity of architectural propositions and communal and private spaces had to ensure and enhance this specificity.

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The first stage was to ‘sculpt’ the volumes in order to exploit their urban potential and intrinsic spatial qualities.

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We directed our research towards a hybrid typology combining the house and the apartment.

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The principle underlying our approach was that of stacking containers, and careful study of habitat modes, climatic conditions and the sun’s trajectory throughout the year suggested the way to organise this.

The project’s column-slab supporting structure has a system of lightweight façades providing ultra-high performance insulation levels. The relative narrowness of the buildings dictated a strategic search for compactness.

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The idea of variable compactness introduced the notion of a housing unit’s adaptability to seasons and times of day. All residents have the possibility of using their exterior space as a windbreak, a mini-greenhouse or, conversely, as a means of cooling or ventilating.

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The morphology of each unit stems from the wish to develop housing units enabling a variety of uses very simply and with no extra technological input. We are therefore proposing cross-building units with adaptable exterior spaces and at least two different orientations.

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by LAN Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

Paris studio LAN Architecture have won a competition to design a residential complex for Mouvaux, France, with their design for terraced housing.

The 117 residential units will be clad in various patterns of brickwork, visually breaking the development down into smaller elements.

The project will comprise 84 social housing units and 33 private residences as well as a few shops.

The project is expected to be completed in 2013.

Below is some text from the architects:

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New constructions’ urbanization potential and their capacity to integrate the history and the morphology of the city hosting them constitute the major challenge for new built-up areas.

Our strategy takes into consideration this point and other themes as town houses, cars, definition and hierarchical organization of public and collective spaces as well as environmental quality. They are integrated into the project to produce new sustainable urban models. Analysis of uses and architecture types composing the urban morphology of Mouvaux quickly led us towards the conception of a hybrid model, an intermediate housing environment able to conjugate desire of intimacy as well as sociability.

This choice is legitimated by the scale of the constructions already composing the district and the city’s fabric. This new intervention must consider this environment.

A new urban typology

The project’s aim is to build new buildings presenting the same qualities and facilities of a single family house by adding collective spaces. We imagined several spatial systems leading to create a rich and diversified image for each program’s part.

We consider the project as an entity, where every single element has its place and a specific role in the general district’s composition. The relation between the container and the content is inverted and the new buildings become tools defining public spaces.

History and identity

Since Middle Age, inhabitants of Mouvaux were essentially dedicated to the textile industry. The new housing fronts decline patterns based on the geometrical work of the fabric. By observing attentively, it seems evident that the fabric, the “serge” and the satin always existed in the drawings of the brick of the North, and in the different ways they are displayed.

PROGRAM

Construction of 117 housing units (84 social housing units and 33 private housing units) and retails
Location:  centre ville de Mouvaux
Client:  acarat – Groupe G.H.I. – Notre Logis
Cost: €12,1 M
Timetable: 2009 - 2013

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Parisian architects LAN Architecture have completed the company headquarters for packaging manufacturer Marchesini France in Paris, France.

The building is composed of two main volumes, designed to separate the office space from the workshops.  The entrance is located at the intersection of the volumes.

It is constructed from concrete and painted black.

Photos by Jean-Marie Monthiers.

The following text is from LAN Architecture:

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Company headquarters
Saint Mesmes

The primary intention of the programme is to explore the relationship between the building and its surroundings and between the building users and the landscape. One of the main design concerns was the building’s environmental adaptation and appropriation.

The site slopes down three metres towards the west, offering attractive views over the neighbouring hills. Our solution was to create two hierarchically related volumes placed perpendicular to one another along a north-south axis and follow the slope of the site.

One of the volumes contains flexible workspaces while the other encloses a workshop, exhibition space and storage areas. The offices occupy the upper area of the site and are raised above ground level to provide an impression of lightness. The idea was also to erase distinctions between the different kinds of work by avoiding the use of corridors. The result is that the transition areas also act as settings where people can meet one another or as waiting spaces with pleasant views looking out over the countryside.

The workshop volume is located at a lower level and gives the appearance of being solidly anchored to the ground. The intersection of the two volumes serves as the entrance, with a sloped ramp rising up into the building.

The elevations and roof are completely constructed from black painted concrete. The roof finish allow it be read as the building’s fifth elevation.

PROGRAMME: Design and construction of a company headquarters
CLIENT: Marchesini France
LOCATION: rue Royale, Saint Mesmes, France
NET PLAN AREA: 1250 m²
COMPLETION: 2008

More Dezeen stories about LAN Architecture:

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Toy library in Bonneuil-sur-Marne

Toy library in Bonneuil-sur-Marne Interior

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Readers have been asking for interior photos of the toy library at Bonneuil-sur-Marne, France by LAN Architecture - so here they are.

The project involved creating a free standing, cast-concrete shell around the existing two-storey building on a 1960s social housing estate.

See our previous story for more information.

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by LAN Architecture 2 appeared first on Dezeen.