Projects

The Guillaume Tirel High School for teaching the hotel trade is located on Paris’ Boulevard Raspail in the Montparnasse district. The building is synonymous with its site, for in its way it expresses the relationship between the place and the city.

The dormitory accommodations were built a few years later on the rue Campagne Première. A transition more than a clean break between the two buildings had to be made. The link with the high school is made by a hollow volume and a cladding of creased polished steel while passing towards the street scale modulates to a more domestic vocabulary based on working with the vertical window and its sliding, brushed stainless-steel shutters.

Although the use of metal recalls the high school’s frames, the random placing of the shutters demonstrates a mathematical disorder that differentiates it from the even pattern of the school. It slides imperceptibly to another system that is, on the whole, autonomous yet dependent.

This building houses the Côtes d’Armor alert processing centre.

Organised around a patio, the building allows full visibility of the internal operation and provides a central focal point for the crisis management team. A position that is both strategic and confidential.

Modular design, structural lightness and thermal control are part of a sustainable development approach.

The shiny stainless steel, Uginox Bright over 304 grade associated with clear or opal glass and white lacquered aluminium give the building a harmonious appearance.

A mirror for the immediate environment, perception of the site is enriched, combining the strength of its geometric design with the multiple visual variations of the reflected landscape depending on the hours of the day and on the seasons.

The French town of Dole, located on the river Doubs half way between Dijon and Besançon in the Jura county, has an attractive old centre of historic importance. Grouped around the 16th-century collegiate church with its 75 metre tower is an extensive ensemble of listed buildings.

Any modern-style building would impact negatively on the silhouette of this medieval town, so, when choosing a location for a new multi-purpose hall for the local community, il was decided to build it on an area of waste land on the opposite bank of the river.

The new hall, 59 x 56.5 meters in polan, now stands confidently yet respectfully facing the old town across the waters of the Doubs. Blocks of rough-hewn local stone are anchored into the windowless concrete walls on three sides of the 12 meter high hall. The fourth side is clad in stainless steel panels with a high-gloss finish that acts like a mirror, reflecting the ever-changing light moods and cloud patterns of the surroundings and the sky above.

Flexibility was a priority in designing the interior. The 44 x 39 meter column-free hall, spanned by steel trusses, can be used for a wide variety of purposes – from music concerts and theatre performances to exhibitions, congresses and sports events. It can be configured to accomodate anything from 200 to 1900 people (by opening up the hall to the foyer), thanks to a modular space concept featuring movable acoustic partitions and sliding blocks of seating.

A 44 meter long steel girder spans almost the entire width of the building on the month façade. This enables the foyer to be opened up to the terrace, via glass doors in a continuous strip of glazing below the girder. The girder itself is clad on the outside with vertical sandwich panels, 9 meters high and 900 mm wide. Each panel is covered by a sheet of 1.5 mm thick stainless steel (grade: EN 1.4301) with a high-gloss mill finish.

Fitted into the solid, 25 cm thick concrete of the other three façades are large blocks of Rocheret stone, a type do limestone quarried in the region. This stone, with its yello-to-grey colouration, was also used in the past to build the medieval town centre; its use in this modern building represents a further visual link with the immediate environment. Positioned 90 cm in front of these sculptural walls is an irregular grid of stainless steel tube. This grid, which is attached to the wall at intervals via fixing plates, also acts as a frame for climbing plants.

Stainless used in the industrial kitchens of these hospitality training centre buildings for apprentices brings two contrasting surface finishes:

• Uginox Bright for the pyramid shaped cassette panels in the long corridor of the general teaching area
• Brushed stainless for the flat panels along the main landing of the professional teaching area

Bringing added value to professional training was the leitmotiv for the public authorities when they commissioned the construction of this apprentice training centre (CFA) alongside the regional catering school Raymond Mondon, due for renovation. The goal was to develop synergies and create a Centre of excellence offering all of the disciplines in hospitality management within one urban hub. Both facilities are headed by one management team, actively involved in the “City of taste” initiative developed by the Lorraine region. Built as a whole, the CFA is a taster and a valuable shop window. Open to all hospitality careers, it is often open to the general public with a licensed restaurant. The art of welcoming and courtesy are honed to the same extent as the culinary talents are taught. The simple pleasures of the home-grower result in the most refined cuisine obtained through hard work demanding both rigour and precision. This demanding and sensitive environment with its catering professions has turned the concept and whole make up of this new establishment into a real life achievement centre.

A well structured layout

The building of the CFA was an opportunity to rework the site from the street side and rationalise the access in advance of the centre of excellence with the renovation of the high school. On entering the high school concourse, the area is laid out into two main functional areas, the main street facing professional teaching building and the general teaching building shaped like a fine blade at the back of the plot. The concourse descends progressively under the pillars of the general teaching building forming a cover.

A large pontoon is an invitation to enter the building leading to a number of different activities overlooking the concourse and the boards of the allotment and home-grown garden areas. Separate from the professional building is a restaurant, cloakrooms and the kitchens with the administrative areas and classrooms at the far end. The stratified floors and the resulting transparency enrich the place and give it countrified quality feel.

Bright annealed at the tips and brushed at the planes

The elementary volume of the buildings respond with the worked façade areas in both a distinctive and contrasting manner. Stainless steel, a material of excellence for professional kitchens. Developed along 100 metres in the background, the general teaching block is illuminated by its 400 Uginox Bright cassette panels shaped into diamond tips like 320 drawings ofan 800m² jigsaw etched onto the façade. In the foreground, the large metallic box of the professional teaching block takes on the brushed stainless look of the professional kitchen equipment, aligned to the interior surfaces used on both the walls and ceilings. Returning to the exterior, this impeccable material clads the flat panels of the entire technical floor positioned above the kitchens. Set into the background lies the frontal of the restaurant in the west façade, shielded by Uginox Bright vertical louvers which encircle the street facing loggia. A well polished long term establishment.

The “Jardin Des Poupies”: a unique place for disabled children 3 to 6 years.

A pioneering social project

Since February 2007, the ”Jardin des Poupies” (or “Doll’s garden”) has welcomed 75 children, some without disabilities, of up to 3 years old, and others with disabilities of all ages up to 6. This establishment is unique in France where there is no structure to accommodate disabled children from 3 to 6 years old. It is through the combined efforts of parents and leaders of the association that this project, which is a private initiative, has been made possible and the result is the construction of a new building.

An unusual building

Sensitive to the unique nature of the project and the human adventure that it represents, the architects from Topos wanted to create a symbolic place that differs from its immediate environment (school groups) and displays a strong identity, just like the image of the project it houses.

Totally stainless steel

Located in the beautiful park of the large school group Carcouet in Nantes, and on land belonging to the city, the building is largely covered with polished stainless steel, Uginox Bright applied over grade 304. Sober and elegant lines, it reflects the surrounding landscape and affirms its presence through the brilliance of stainless steel, while blending into the surrounding natural environment. A combination of strength and discretion 

A building/garden designed for meetings

Built on the ground floor, the building is organised in a “U” shape around a large central courtyard 400, with a canopy, onto which are connected all the entrances for all the rooms reserved for the children. In addition to these, a large 400 m² hall allows families to come together. A small inner bamboo floor and a play-room dedicated to water games underscore the lively and playful atmosphere.

The spaces are not assigned, so that children may move freely from one room to another.

The diversity of interior spaces echoes the views offered: while the patio is wide open on a planted open landscape, the courtyard and the lobby overlook a pine forest near the building, and the living areas enjoy the privacy of the patio.

Priority for the children’s comfort and respect for the environment

Thermal inertia is provided by the concrete structure of the building and its green roof. This also helps to slow the flow of rainwater. A heat pump and ten Canadian wells, 100 meters deep, ensure the underfloor heating. The building is also equipped with a double flow (filtered air, heated in winter and cooled in summer) ventilation system, which reduces energy consumption and promotes summer comfort.

Technical areas have been reduced to a minimum, in order to allow as much space as possible for the children. Thus giving them a calm, spacious area bathed in natural light.