Office: Jean-François Schmit | ArchDaily

Reconstruction Of Exhibition Center Hall 2 / Jean-François Schmit

Daniel Sánchez — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 01:00:00 +0000

Following the collapse of Hall 2 of Caen’s exhibition centre, caused by the snow event in March 2013, we had to offer quick architectural solutions for its reconstruction to be durable, rapid and as inexpensive as possible. It was primarily the retention of the building foundations that guided us in our initial choices:

Forty-Six Dwellings / Jean-François Schmit

Daniel Sánchez — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 01:00:00 +0000

Occupying three sides of a large plot on the outskirts of the town of Sceaux, south of Paris, the building is a hybrid, multi-faceted object. The passer-by approaching the development along Rue Houdan will not see any fundamental difference to the other apartment buildings lining this radial road leading to the town centre. Standing back, he will doubtless be surprised by the top floors, which appear to be occupied by a wild, unrestrained roof-top extension. Completing his circumnavigation, he will discover a long frontage comprising a succession of different types of construction, monolith, apartment building and private house, united by a long plinth, playing on solid masses and recesses and complementarity of scale.

New Leather Workshop in the Isère Department / Jean-François Schmit

Daniel Sánchez — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 01:00:00 +0000

In the focus on manual production techniques and the quest for excellence by the craftsmen who guarantee the quality of the articles produced by the haute couture workshops, we recognised the basis of our own studio’s practices: workplace architecture.

PIM2 Jet Engine Maintenance Base / Jean-François Schmit

Daniel Sánchez — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 03:00:00 +0000

PIM - behind this mysterious acronym hides the new jet engine maintenance base built at Orly by Air France’s real estate division. It is in this building that the engines of aircraft belonging to Air France, or other companies that use this technical service marketed by the airline in the same way as freight or passenger transport, are washed, disassembled and inspected. The largest engine that the facility can accommodate, the GE 90, measures 3.40 metres in diameter and weighs over 8 tonnes. The building’s facade is a metaphor for take-off: a metal casing with white cladding, whose form evokes a wing section, floats above a black, patterned concrete base symbolising rocks. These earthbound elements are embedded in a grassed slope that they appear to penetrate. The layout drawing exhibits the form of a large, unadorned square volume.

Nursery School and Municipal Workshops / Jean-François Schmit

Daniel Sánchez — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 01:00:00 +0000

The Michelet development was built in the 1960s on the site of a former gasworks. The urban form of this major development, totalling more than one thousand eight hundred social dwellings, is typical of its period and is similar in some respects to the large housing complexes produced by post-war reconstruction policies. Seventeen tower blocks share a planted site, in line with the approach of the modern town built in green space. The development remains relatively enclosed and still difficult to access in an out-of-the-way part of the 19th arrondissement of Paris.

Eco Nursery and Primary School / Jean-François Schmit

Daniel Sánchez — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 01:00:00 +0000

The 21st century school will be environmental or it won’t exist! In this project, it was not simply a matter of rebuilding a school complex, but of effecting its transformation into an “eco-school”. Siting choices make it possible to go beyond the performative character of eco-construction, too often reduced to questions of figures and performance, and instead afford greater place to the concepts of mood and atmosphere. The school complex is in a park at the centre of a block, introducing a fresh-air oasis and change of surroundings into a rather dense urban environment. The reversal of the access arrangements accentuates this effect, since it emphasises the proximity of the school to the linear garden that will soon be planted on the former inner ring railway line in the southern part of the plot.