Polyblosne - Pôle associatif du Blosne
AN ATTRACTIVE AND LIVELY CENTER
The building is located in the south-east of Rennes, in an area composed of large housing estates built in the 1960s. This project is a key part of the urban renewal programme currently being undertaken by the city.
This urban renewal programme focuses on the district's strengths: a rich community life, quality buildings and abundant green spaces. It aims to revitalise and restructure the neighbourhood by creating a new, identifiable focal point and a vector for social cohesion.
The community centre is located on a future main urban axis, the Rambla, which will be created along the Boulevard de Yugoslavie to connect the new neighbourhood facilities with the existing ones.
The Centre is also intended to be the repository of the neighbourhood's memory and the history of the people who helped build it, particularly as it stands on the site of the Baraque Ar Maure, the former barracks used by the site workers when the neighbourhood was created.
It is above all a place that is easily accessible, designed to encourage its appropriation by the public.
A BUILDING THAT BREAKS WITH THE ARCHITECTURE OF HOUSING ESTATES
The project contrasts with the architectural expression of the surrounding 1960s buildings. The architect uses a vocabulary that first establishes the identity of an autonomous building by means of its unifying platform, a sign of coming together. Its diversity of uses and audiences is illustrated by the building's emergences, linked by the platform and the open galleries. The emergences express the facility's unique multi-purpose role. The project uses the archetype of the house as an allegory for the idea of hospitality, social ties and a place for sharing.
The project contrasts with the architectural expression of the surrounding 1960s buildings. The architect uses a vocabulary that first establishes the identity of an autonomous building by means of its single plinth, a sign of coming together.
The diversity of uses and audiences is illustrated by the emergences, linked by the platform and the open galleries. These express the facility's unique multi-purpose role. The project uses the archetype of the house as an allegory for the idea of hospitality, social ties and a place for sharing.
A PROJECT OPEN TO ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD
The emergences offer breathing space with outdoor areas as structuring elements. The aim is to encourage more intense interaction between inside and outside, to create visual cues between the different programmes through appropriate landscaping, and to establish a dialogue with its immediate context.
The permeability created by the visual openings is reinforced by the transparency of the platform and its emerging elements. This transparency serves the social dynamic of the project by revealing some of its activities and displaying them in the public space.
A CLEAR AND VISIBLE PLACE THAT VALUES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
The unifying platform
The different "houses" are linked by the unifying platform and by covered passages that protect and orientate users. Linking all the functions, the platform frames and highlights the public activities taking place in the centre.
The entrance hall
Accessible from the future square at the junction of Boulevard de Yugoslavie and Avenue des Pays-Bas, the entrance hall is an anchor point of the ensemble, and an essential feature of the building. With its double height and opening onto the garden, it is a breathing space that immediately signals the scale of the project.
The façades
The facades are light and lively, with precisely sculpted openings in the emergences. Some of the timber cladding encloses terraces that are truly private outdoor spaces. This openwork façade creates a play of light and shade in the interior spaces. Wooden brise-soleil screens protect and unify the facades.
The emergences
The ensemble is structured by its unifying ground floor, followed by 5 emergences of two to three storeys each one, housing several functions. The shape, orientation, openings, and opacities are slightly different in each one. Their sloping roofs, in addition to referencing houses in a neighbourhood, provide height above the rooflines and serves as a signal, establishing a presence in the district.
The gardens
The gardens create a sense of unity, like a seam that ties the program together into a unique and coherent whole.
CREDITS
project representative: antonio virga architecte
project manager: keeyong lee
assistant project manager: chiara sorrento
technical engineering office: tpfi
landscape architect: pollen paysage
project coordinator: gotec
