hangar + workshop
ANCHORING
In between the cities of Reims and Witry-Caurel, the project takes place in an industrial area located next to a fast lane and in between two roads surrounded by fields.
Not really in the country side nor in a city the project is surrounded by technical buildings. Divided in two programs, the project is composed with two buidlings. One is a hangar with its offices, and the other is a workshop meant to repair the trucks delivering goods across the country and beyond.
Lacking urban grips or landmarks, the ambition is to engage a relation with the landscape and the workers either going on site or passing by.
ENVELOPES
Often, industrial buidlings are neglected. The project tends to offer singularity and respect to this kind of program that interacts with hundreds of people everyday due to its location.
The hangar is considered as a modern cathedral made out of steel. The 3 meters wide rose window, symbol of the project brings unicity and solemnity.
The workshop is smaller. It is transparent building due to crossing doors and allows a relation with small hill and the landscape troughout the building, giving a sensation of lightness. It takes its originality from the roofing and the aluminium rubbon creating a smooth transition in between materials.
The main material, unifying the whole is a vertical metal cladding. Tight stripes gives a sensation of unity instead of wider that would have been to talkative. The vertical pattern is reused by the polycarbonate panels and provides harmony in the overall composition.
Windows ans doors are also made out of metal. The light grey aluminium matching the facade allow them to be discreet and enhances the presence of the glass.
The weather is often grey in the area, so the builidng is blending with the sky, not to drag too much attention and to amplify the pressence or nature. The earthy soil and the vegetation take the first roles in the composition.
ATMOSPHERES
The interiors are pure and simple in contrasts with the rurality of the surroundings.
Deliberately sober using neutral tones, the project enhances the relation with the sun and the sky.
The overall is delicately highlighted by the filtered and homogeneous light of the milky polycarbonate ribbon. An envelopping soft feeling of brightness is created withing this generous volume bathed in light. Even by grey sky, the artifical light is no requiered.
The hangar meets again the rose windows from within, symbol of the sun's path. However, the singularity of the workshop is its roofing. The polycarbnate is wrapping the entire building like a glass bell on top of it. Therfore this small building is bathed with natural light and vibrates during the night time.
TWILIGHT
Night time is an opportunity to tell another story. When down or dusk occure, the second life of the buildings arrises. Secluded, the project interacts with the drivers passing by either from early mornings or afternoons during winter time
Especially the workshop, behaves like a firelfy, a lantern in the middle of the fields. Due to the polycarbonate roofing, it vibrates with the artificial light from within.
The project assumes its presence, not being ostentatious but proposing a soft and warm light in the dark. It gives company to the early birds and night owls. Due to the flatness of the landscape, we can imagine its glow being perceived from afar.
