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Architects: Guinée et Potin Architects
- Area: 1450 m²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Nicolas Pineau, Stéphane Chalmeau
Text description provided by the architects. In the city of Joué sur Erdre, aside the lake of Vioreau, is set the Leisure Facility on the site called ‘la Boustière’.
The localization of the project is generated ‘naturally’ on three borders : on the North side the building is sitting on a hill ; there is an existing pathway bypassing the site from North to South ; a camping field is set on the West part of the site. The site is turned to the South, facing the shores and the banks of the lake.
Discovering the site, one can measure the importance of a project that would have to be set as a link between the different elements composing the environment : the water sports facility, the parking lot uphill, the archery training spot, the camping site, and the pathway going to the lake.
The Architectural Project.
The leisure facility has to be inscribed in the environment and play with it, without disturbing it, just modifying its principles, in cohesion with the architectural and landscapes datas given here. The project turns the site, composed of independent elements, into a single piece, well articulated and wired. To comfort that, it was decided not to modify anything ; the camping site, the different access, the landscape layouts, the pathways going through the site.
The topography of the site is totally used to set the project on two axes:
- North/South axe, in order to fit the project in the hill ;
- West/East axe, in order to stretch the project along the hill, parallel to the bank of the lake.
The floor of the upper level is set on the natural terrain, creating a soft slope from the parking lot.
The downslope of the site makes that the new building does not impact much the site, slipping the storage rooms, the changing rooms, the technical rooms in the terrain, at the lower floor, on the same level as the bank, making the maneuver and the access to the lake easier.
Thus each floor stands on the ground level, connected directly to the topography of the site. The lower level has a generous space (4m under the beams) to store all the water sports equipment.
The project is based on a sustainable approach, adopting the principles of a bioclimatic architecture:
• North/South orientation, taking into account the climate, the wind and the sunshine of the site ;
• low impact on the landscape thanks to its materiality (wooden covering for the upper level, molded concrete for the lower level)
• Compacity of the building (simple and compact form), with strong inertia that brings thermal comfort all year long ;
• Passive exploitation of solar energy, summer protection added ;
• South façade generously opened on the landscape, circulations in the North part.
This disposals and passive methods concerning the form, the implantation, the orientation and the nature of the facades and the roof are to be completed by simple and well-known technical solutions, such as reinforced isolation, mechanical ventilation, transformation of the energy of the heat, etc. This technics work on a perfect airtightness and the use of a passive production of electricity, and lead us to great thermal performances.
Concept: a contemporary approach of vernacular aesthetic.
In this context, marked by a poetic of the landscape, the project sets a strong identity, interpretating in a contemporean way the vernacular aspect of the site. The project superposes two layers that reveal the context as well as the program:
- On the lower level, a mineral layer made of molded concrete giving a rocky aspect lays on a site-inspired geometry, that you can find in the area of Chateaubriand/Nozay/Joué sur Erdre, from the vernacular architecture made of stones to the numerous schist quarries.
This molded concrete skin is covered with irregular paintings, interpretating the colours of the rocks on the site.
- On the upper level, a large an lightful glazed South façade turns into a wooden covering on the North, West and East façades, just like the wooden architecture of the Pays de la Mée.
Materials.
The project relies only on simple technical construction solutions and well-known materials. Taking into account the energy performances on the equipment and the autonomy of the two levels, we decided to adopt the following constructive principles :
- For the upper level a timber framework. Everything is prefabricated, this way we ensure the control of the detail, of the assemblies, and it guarantees a noiseless construction site and a flexibility of the building in the future ;
- For the lower level a pilars and beams concrete structure.
These solutions are a guarantee of sustainability of the materials, it increases inertia, allow to have a clean construction site, and a possible evolution of the use of the building. The skin of the North façade is extended to the roof on an self-protected impermeability. This solution needs very few control. On the South part, the slope of the roof hosts solar panels, without modifying the esthetic of the building.
