This elliptical chapel near Oxford by London studio Niall McLaughlin Architects contains a group of arching timber columns behind its textured stone facade (+ slideshow).

The Bishop Edward King Chapel replaces another smaller chapel at the Ripon Theological College campus and accommodates both students of the college and the local nuns of a small religious order.

Niall McLaughlin Architects was asked to create a building that respects the historic architecture of the campus, which includes a nineteenth century college building and vicarage, and also fits comfortably amongst a grove of mature trees.

For the exterior, the architects sourced a sandy-coloured stone, similar to the limestone walls of the existing college, and used small blocks to create a zigzagging texture around the outside of the ellipse. A wooden roof crowns the structure and integrates a row of clerestory windows that bring light across the ceiling.

Inside, the tree-like timber columns form a second layer behind the walls, enclosing the nave of the chapel and creating an ambulatory around the perimeter. Each column comprises at least three branches, which form a latticed canopy overhead.

Niall McLaughlin told Dezeen: "If you get up very early, at sunrise, the horizontal sun casts a maze of moving shadows of branches, leaves, window mullions and structure onto the ceiling. It is like looking up into trees in a wood."

A projecting window offers a small seating area on one side of the chapel, where McLaughlin says you can "watch the sunlit fields on the other side of the valley".

A small rectilinear block accompanies the structure and houses the entrance lobby, a sacristy, storage areas and toilets.

The Bishop Edward King Chapel was one of 52 projects to recently win an RIBA Award.

Other projects by Niall McLaughlin Architects include four mono-pitched extensions to a rural cottage in Ireland.

Photography is by the architects, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here's a detailed project description from Niall McLaughlin Architects:

Bishop Edward King Chapel

The client brief sought a new chapel for Ripon Theological College, to serve the two interconnected groups resident on the campus in Oxfordshire, the college community and the nuns of a small religious order, the Sisters of Begbroke. The chapel replaces the existing one, designed by George Edmund Street in the late nineteenth century, which had since proved to be too small for the current needs of the college.

The brief asked for a chapel that would accommodate the range of worshipping needs of the two communities in a collegiate seating arrangement, and would be suitable for both communal gatherings and personal prayer. In addition the brief envisioned a separate space for the Sisters to recite their offices, a spacious sacristy, and the necessary ancillary accommodation. Over and above these outline requirements, the brief set out the clients' aspirations for the chapel, foremost as 'a place of personal encounter with the numinous' that would enable the occupants to think creatively about the relationship between space and liturgy. The client summarised their aspirations for the project with Philip Larkin's words from his poem Church Going, 'A serious house on serious earth it is... which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in...'.

On the site is an enormous beech tree on the brow of the hill. Facing away from the beech and the college buildings behind, there is ring of mature trees on high ground overlooking the valley that stretches away towards Garsington. This clearing has its own particular character, full of wind and light and the rustling of leaves.

These strengths of the site also presented significant planning constraints. The college's existing buildings are of considerable historical importance. G.E. Street was a prominent architect of the Victorian Age and both the main college building and vicarage to its south are Grade II* listed.

The site is designated within the Green Belt in the South Oxfordshire Local Plan and is also visible from a considerable distance across the valley to the west. The immediate vicinity of the site is populated with mature trees and has a Tree Preservation Order applied to a group at the eastern boundary. The design needed to integrate with the character of the panorama and preserve the setting of the college campus and the surrounding trees.

The mediation of these interlocked planning sensitivities required extensive consultation with South Oxfordshire District Council, English Heritage and local residents.

The starting point for this project was the hidden word 'nave' at the centre of Seamus Heaney poem Lightenings viii. The word describes the central space of a church, but shares the same origin as 'navis', a ship, and can also mean the still centre of a turning wheel. From these words, two architectural images emerged. The first is the hollow in the ground as the meeting place of the community, the still centre. The second is the delicate ship-like timber structure that floats above in the tree canopy, the gathering place for light and sound. We enjoyed the geometry of the ellipse.

To construct an ellipse the stable circle is played against the line, which is about movement back and forth. For us this reflected the idea of exchange between perfect and imperfect at the centre of Christian thought. The movement inherent in the geometry is expressed in the chapel through the perimeter ambulatory. It is possible to walk around the chapel, looking into the brighter space in the centre. The sense of looking into an illuminated clearing goes back to the earliest churches. We made a clearing to gather in the light.

The chapel, seen from the outside, is a single stone enclosure. We have used Clipsham stone which is sympathetic, both in terms of texture and colouration, to the limestone of the existing college. The external walls are of insulated cavity construction, comprising of a curved reinforced blockwork internal leaf and dressed stone outer leaf.

The base of the chapel and the ancillary structures are clad in ashlar stone laid in regular courses. The upper section of the main chapel is dressed in cropped walling stone, laid in a dog-tooth bond to regular courses. The chapel wall is surmounted by a halo of natural stone fins. The fins sit in front of high-performance double glazed units, mounted in concealed metal frames.

The roof of the main chapel and the ancillary block are both of warm deck construction. The chapel roof drains to concealed rainwater pipes running through the cavity of the external wall. Where exposed at clerestory level, the rainwater pipes are clad in aluminium sleeves with a bronze anodised finish and recessed into the stone fins. The roof and the internal frame are self-supporting and act independently from the external walls.

A minimal junction between the roof and the walls expresses this. Externally the roof parapet steps back to diminish its presence above the clerestorey; inside the underside of the roof structure rises up to the outer walls to form the shape of a keel, expressing the floating 'navis' of Heaney's poem.

The internal timber structure is constructed of prefabricated Glulam sections with steel fixings and fully concealed steel base plate connections. The Glulam sections are made up of visual grade spruce laminations treated with a two-part stain system, which gives a light white-washed finish.

The structure of roof and columns express the geometrical construction of the ellipse itself, a ferrying between centre and edge with straight lines that reveals the two stable foci at either end, reflected in the collegiate layout below in the twin focus points of altar and lectern. As you move around the chapel there is an unfolding rhythm interplay between the thicket of columns and the simple elliptical walls beyond. The chapel can be understood as a ship in a bottle, the hidden 'nave'.

RIBA competition won - July 2009
Planning Consent - June 2010
Construction - July 2011
Practical Completion – February 2013
Construction Cost - 2,034,000

The post Bishop Edward King Chapel
by Niall McLaughlin Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

A cantilevered exhibition floor and an underwater conference suite feature at this archive and research centre, designed by Italian office Boeri Studio and one of several new buildings on Marseille's waterfront (photographs by Edmund Sumner + slideshow).

Like the neighbouring Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MuCEM), Villa Méditerranée is dedicated to the history and cultures of the Mediterranean region and its opening also coincides with Marseille's designation as European Capital of Culture 2013.

The building sits at the water's edge and was designed by Stefano Boeri as "a place of thought and research that physically embraces the sea".

"I have always been obsessed with harbour architecture," says Boeri, describing his interest in naval stations, silos, observation towers and dry docks. "Villa Méditerranée is a construction that combines the characteristics of civic architecture with those of harbour infrastructure and off-shore platforms."

The architect used a combination of reinforced concrete and steel to create the angular structure of the building, then added glazing across the front and rear elevations to allow views right through.

Porthole windows face out into the sea from the conference centre, which occupies an entire floor below ground level, while the third-floor exhibition gallery is contained within a 36-metre cantilever that frames and shelters a waterfront piazza.

A triple-height entrance hall connects the two main floors. Windows are dotted randomly across its facade, reappearing as skylights and transparent floor panels elsewhere around the exterior.

Both Villa Méditerranée and MuCEM opened to the public this month. Other new projects in Marseille this year include a polished steel pavilion by Foster + Partners and a contemporary art space on the rooftop of Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse housing block. See more architecture in Marseille.

Stefano Boeri also made the news earlier this year, after architects and designers including Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Ross Lovegrove petitioned against his dismissal as Milan's city councillor for design, fashion and culture.

See more photography by Edmund Sumner on Dezeen, or on his website.

Here's some more information from Boeri Studio:

Villa Méditerranée, Centre International pour le dialogue et les échanges en Méditerranée, Marseille, France

Villa Méditerranée, Centre International pour le dialogue et les échanges en Méditerranée is a circa 9.000 square metre multipurpose building, overlooking the Port of Marseille's docks, destined to house research activities and documentation spaces on the Mediterranean.

The sea is the main unifying element of the Mediterranean world, sailed by the innumerable travels, migrations and trade; it enhances the meeting and the exchange of the communities that live in its coast.

The sea is the central element of the project: the water square enclosed in the building’s interior is the new public space representing the institution.

It is not simply a basin with ornamental intentions, but rather the union, the means of contact that orients, animates, and organises the building as a whole.

The new Villa Méditerranée, Centre International pour le dialogue et les échanges en Méditerranée is articulated between earth and sea.

The port in which the new building is located has always been a mutable, hybrid place, open to host the most variable uses.

The water of the Gulf of Marseilles enters between the building's two horizontal planes (that of the conference hall and exhibition centre) creating a water square capable of harbouring fishing boats, sail boats or simply serving as a swimming pool and moorings for small pleasure boats.

The building has been thought as a place in dialogue with the surrounded landscape (earth, city, sea...) revealing the site's values and opening up to the Mediterranean.

A cantilever of 36m is suspended at 14m from the sea level hosting an exhibition area of ca. 1500 sqm, it is enlighten by side windows, roof-lights and walkable glasses in the floor.

A conference centre of 2500 smq is located underwater; here the contact with the sea is possible through portholes. A big vertical entrance hall links together the main spaces and other smaller rooms which host offices, restaurant and other services.

The new construction combines an apparent simplicity with a real richness of spaces, paths and functions. The patio is a fundamental element of the mediterranean architecture and it has been chosen as the central element in the design process. Its ability to create at the same time an interior space and a filter towards the exterior is the key point to read and dialogue with the esplanade j4 and with the entire port. The result is a generous place, flexible and multifunctional, capable to host the unexpected.

Architecture:
Boeri Studio (Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, Giovanni La Varra)
Ivan di Pol, Jean Pierre Manfredi, Alain Goetschy, AR&C;
Design Team: Mario Bastianelli (Project Leader), Davor Popovic (project leader building phase), Marco Brega (project leader competition phase)
Collaborators: Alessandro Agosti, Marco Bernardini, Daniele Barillari, Fabio Continanza, Massimo Cutini, Angela Parrozzani

Client: Conseil Regional Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur
Competition Year: 2004
Building site start: 2010
Building site end: 2013
Surface: 8.800 sqm

The post Villa Méditerranée by
Boeri Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architect David Adjaye has unveiled his design for a facility to house master silk weavers in Varanasi, India.

The building will provide a hub for training artisans in silk weaving, as well as offering classes in business development. Facilities will include clean water, green energy and communal areas to help improve the quality of life for residents of the world's oldest living city.

The project was commissioned by luxury clothing and accessories brand Maiyet, who asked David Adjaye "to respect the integrity of the location and partnership" in his design.

"This project is an amazing combination of context, place and tradition. It represents the reinvigoration of an extraordinary craft that is knitted to the heritage of Varanasi: its diverse culture, religion and architecture," said Adjaye, adding on his website: "The building aims to engage with this legacy - while offering a new contemporary typology for an artisanal workshop that will provide a much needed space for a wider community."

We spoke to David Adjaye earlier this year during our Dezeen and MINI World Tour visit to Design Indaba in South Africa, where he told us about the opportunities available to architects in Africa.

Adjaye has also designed an exhibition of work by Indian architect Charles Correa that is currently on show at the RIBA in London – see all architecture by David Adjaye.

Here's a statement released by Maiyet:

Maiyet announces Varanasi project

Maiyet launches a limited edition capsule collection with Barneys New York, featuring the exclusive collaboration between Maiyet, Nest and master silk weavers from Varanasi, India

May 9th, 2013- Maiyet is deeply committed to forging partnerships with artisans to promote sustainable business growth in challenging global economies. The brand who pioneers new luxury by celebrating rare skills from unexpected places found in Varanasi, India, the perfect place to launch a strategic partnership with Nest – an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to training and developing artisan businesses. "During our first trip to India, we recognized the amazing potential of the hand woven silks of Varanasi as true artisanal luxury, with the help of Nest, we are now capable of partnering with an inspiring group of artisans to consistently create unique, modern and beautiful materials." said Kristy Caylor Creative Director and President of Maiyet.

Varanasi, India is the oldest living city on earth with the incredible historic tradition of ancient hand-woven silk. In order to keep this rare skill alive Maiyet and Nest have worked together with the Varanasi weavers to rethink, redesign and redefine their craft production in a way that is revolutionary. As part of the strategic partnership program, Maiyet and Nest develop training programs, business and leadership development. The implementation of a weaving facility in Varanasi will create the first hub to centralize the program.

Paul van Zyl, Co-founder and CEO of Maiyet believes "this silk weaving facility will help preserve a cultural treasure and allow a community to earn sufficient resources to lead a life of dignity." The facility will improve the capacity and the ability of the weavers as well as be a place to train the next generation of artisans. The facility will also be a community center providing clean water, green energy, training and communal spaces for meetings and events. This is a full circle moment for the young luxury brand and the group of weavers who have been working together since Maiyet’s first debut collection in October 2011.

Maiyet has commissioned renowned architect David Adjaye to design the facility – challenging him to respect the integrity of the location and partnership. "This project is an amazing combination of context, place and tradition. It represents the reinvigoration of an extraordinary craft that is knitted to the heritage of Varanasi: its diverse culture, religion and architecture," said Adjaye. Adjaye has won a number of prestigious commissions; he was recently selected in a competition to design the $500 million national Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Some of his past work includes the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo and the private home of Alexander McQueen.

Maiyet’s limited edition capsule collection of ready-to-wear pieces and accessories are available exclusively at Barneys New York.

The post David Adjaye reveals design for
a silk-weaving facility in India appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has revealed plans to raze the existing buildings of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and replace them with a new solar-powered campus.

Commissioned by LACMA to bring the museum into the twenty-first century, the architect proposes the demolition of the 1965 building by William L. Pereira and a later extension by Hardy Holzmann Pfeiffer Associates, in favour of a glazed two-storey structure that will sprawl out across the Wilshire Boulevard site in a series of undulating curves.

A large flat roof will encompass the new building. Solar panels will cover its surface, intended to generate more than enough energy to power the building.

"I think we have a great opportunity here," says Zumthor. "Having a big flat roof exposed to the sky we can produce all the energy we want with solar power."

Instead of a traditional entrance and staircase, Zumthor imagines the building with various entry points that will enable visitors to find different routes through the galleries. In some places the structure will be raised up on legs, providing ground-level storage for artworks, plus the Bruce Goff-designed Pavilion for Japanese Art is to be retained alongside.

An architectural model of the project is on show at LACMA as part of the exhibition "The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA", alongside former and unrealised plans for the museum from architects including OMA and Renzo Piano.

Although the architect has been working on the project for over five years, the design is still conceptual and is unlikely to break ground for several years.

Peter Zumthor was this year awarded the Royal Gold Medal for architecture and described how he believes that light, materials and atmosphere are the most important aspects of architecture in the coinciding lecture.

He was also the architect of the 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, where he told Dezeen "I'm a passionate architect... I do not work for money".

See more architecture by Peter Zumthor »

Here are more details about the exhibition from LACMA:

The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA June 9–September 15, 2013
Resnick Pavilion, Centre Gallery

As part of the Getty's Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. initiative, The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA marks the first time the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has explored its own history in the context of an exhibition. The culmination of the exhibition is a proposed design for the future of the eastern side of the museum's campus as envisioned by Pritzker Prize- winning architect Peter Zumthor introduced to the public for the first time, a project. The exhibition also offers an overview of nine other projects by the acclaimed architect, who has previously built only in Europe.

Exhibition Overview

The Presence of the Past contains approximately 116 objects, including architectural models, plans, photographs, drawings, fossils, film, and ephemera. Many of the historical materials are drawn from LACMA's archive and have not been on public view in several decades, if ever. The exhibition's chronology spans some 50,000 years, starting with actual Pleistocene fossils excavated from Hancock Park.

Peter Zumthor designed the exhibition space for The Presence of the Past, which is meant to evoke the architect's studio, emphasising the process of design and research that continue to shape his evolving thoughts for LACMA's campus.

Exhibition Organisation

The exhibition is divided into three sections, the first of which examines the museum's buildings within the complicated history of its Hancock Park site. This section explores the development of LACMA's campus and explains how financial restrictions, political compromises, and unrealised plans have prevented the museum from achieving both a unified aesthetic and an optimal art-viewing experience. In order to demonstrate the long engagement of artists with Hancock Park, The Presence of the Past includes the work of two scientific illustrators, Charles R. Knight and John L. Ridgway, who documented Pleistocene-era species at Rancho La Brea. These works are on loan from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The Presence of the Past marks the exhibition debut of Ridgway's evocative watercolours of paleontological specimens which have only been illustrated in books to date. Knight's renowned fifty-foot mural of the La Brea Tar Pits was installed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County for decades but has been in storage for several years.

The first section also examines the museum's more recent history, including the work of five prominent architects and firms that have either built on LACMA's campus or have contributed unrealised plans that nevertheless influenced its architectural evolution: William L. Pereira; Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates; Bruce Goff; Rem Koolhaas's Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); and Renzo Piano. Among other stories, the exhibition details how Pereira's original vision for the museum was dramatically compromised within a few years of the original buildings' completion, when surrounding fountains - the driving concept of his "floating museum" - were paved over due to tar seepage.

This section also documents, with photographs, how artists have responded to LACMA's architecture over the years, including Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, and Asco; as well as seven artists (among them Chris Burden, Michael Heizer, Robert Irwin, and Barbara Kruger) whose architectonic artworks have shaped the campus in recent years.

The middle section of The Presence of the Past highlights aspects of Peter Zumthor's architectural career most relevant to his plans for LACMA. Nine Zumthor projects have been selected to elucidate key aspects of the architect's proposed design for LACMA: his interest in the geologic history of the site, his passion for materials, craftsmanship and the effects of light, and his commitment to an architecture of total integration. These convictions are examined in two films that discuss Zumthor's architectural approach and methodology: a short documentary by German filmmaker Wim Wenders and a presentation of Zumthor's past work narrated by actor Julian Sands.

The third and final section of the exhibition presents Zumthor's preliminary plans to re-envision LACMA's campus and his ideas for the possibilities of the museum in the twenty-first century. More specifically, Zumthor's proposed design would replace LACMA's 1965 William L. Pereira and Associates buildings and the 1986 addition by Hardy Holzmann Pfeiffer Associates while retaining and highlighting the Bruce Goff-designed Pavilion for Japanese Art, completed in 1988. The centrepiece of this section is an over thirty-foot concrete model designed by Zumthor and produced by Atelier Zumthor, positioned at a height intended to simulate looking into the building at street level. The model is complemented by a short film by Lucy Walker featuring a conversation between Zumthor and LACMA's CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, Michael Govan, about their plans for transforming the museum-going experience.

The post Peter Zumthor unveils redesign for
Los Angeles County Museum of Art appeared first on Dezeen.

The faceted surfaces of this library in the French town of Montauban by Paris architecture studio Colboc Franzen & Associés follow the lines of historical roads bordering the site (+ slideshow).

A former royal road created by Louis XIV influenced the alignment of the second floor, while the ground floor and first floor echo the orientation of a nineteenth century bypass.

There's a foyer, auditorium, café and exhibition space on the ground floor, a large reading space on the first floor, and reference and work areas above.

Colboc Franzen & Associés twisted the top floor to face a different direction from the levels below, creating a mezzanine that projects through the centre of the building and a tiered seating area in the triangular space that connects it to the floor below.

A large overhang covers the entrance, sheltering visitors from the prevailing winds and noise from the nearby bypass.

Baked clay shingles that reference the brick typically used in the region cover the external walls.

Snøhetta has designed an angular library for an American university that uses a robotic system to retrieve books, while Foster + Partners wants to overhaul a public library in New York by creating a four-level atrium to allow access to unused reading rooms – see all stories about libraries.

Here's a project description from the architects:

The construction of Montauban’s new multimedia library is the spearhead of an urban redevelopment project in the eastern parts of town. It will form a gateway into the town, an create an identity for neglected neighbourhoods and provide an emblem for the town of Montauban.It also had to reinvent what a library is for. Knowledge is going digital, so what issues have a bearing on this kind of programme? Montauban’s multimedia library gives a spatial context to and a material representation of information and how it is shared.

The land on which the multimedia library is to be built is bordered and intersected by the geometrical lines left by history. The road that cuts across the site is a former royal road laid out by Louis XIV; the old layout and therefore part of the buildings neighbouring the library are governed by this geometry.

The road that runs along the southern side of the site is a 19th-century bypass, whereas the roads and buildings to the north are influenced by the construction of the Chaumes complex between the 1960s and the late 1970s. Designing the project induced us to divide the building into three equal parts - a citizens’ forum, a large reading space called “Imaginary Worlds” that encourages people to explore and meet each other, and reading and working rooms.

By setting the three different parts of the project on top of each other and swivelling the top floor so that it shares a diagonal with two storeys below it and then connecting them by triangulation, we establish an interesting internal space that addresses the project’s needs and takes account of the site’s geometry.

The ground floor and the first floor therefore follow the line of the 19th-century road. The overhang is slightly truncated to echo the bend in the bypass. The second floor is laid out perpendicular to Louis XIV’s road, ensuring that the building and the roof ridge are aligned with the geometry of history. Lastly, the triangulation matches the geometry of the recent urban development in the northern part of the site.

Visitors will therefore approach the library under the northern overhang from the areas where development work is ongoing. The building protects them from the noise from the bypass and from the prevailing southeasterly wind. It also gives architectural expression to the political desire to welcome in local residents, for who have lived through some hard times and whose future development is ongoing.The citizens’ forum on the ground floor is there for use by passers-by and to welcome visitors inside. There is a large foyer that gives the latest news, a literary café, a 120-seater auditorium, and an exhibition room.

It also contains the service entrance and the administrative offices. The central foyer has a direct visual link to the first floor, which houses the “Imaginary Worlds”, a place of exploration and discovery for visitors of all ages. It has tiered reading areas to ensure a visual and spatial connection with the second storey, which is positioned as a mezzanine above the “Imaginary Worlds”, giving it the benefit of natural light when the sun is high in the sky.

Big plate glass windows at the edges of the two flat reading corners frame the stand-out features of the surrounding area, which are the gateway into town, a copse of hundred-year-old trees, and Montauban town centre. The initial geometrical positioning of the building ensures that the interior of the library resonate with the town outside.

Positioning it this way lends structural support to the overhangs. Two main steel girders run along the top floor and carry it, and they are propped up by four posts. Two of these are positioned at the corners of the lower levels, while the other two hold up the points of the overhangs and situated on the sides of the lower floors. This means that there are no carrying walls inside, allowing for extremely flexible usage.

The building is cloaked in a baked clay skin, which is a reference to Montauban’s typical brick exteriors. This skin consists of shingles, which operate as shading devices on some of the ground floor walls. They keep the staff’s offices cool and private. Only the large glass panes of the reading areas pierce the unusual baked clay-coated mass. The use of dyed concrete for the outside areas brings to mind the pebblestones used in the pavements of the old town.

Client: Montauban Town Council
Cost of construction: € 7,200,000 excluding all tax
Surfaces: Parcel area: 4 488 m2, Useable area: 2,965 m2, Net floor area: 3,800 m2
Location: 2 rue Jean Carmet - 82000 Montauban
Project management: Colboc Franzen & Associés, architects
Project manager › Géraud Pin-Barras
Mission › base exe partielle + OPC + furnishings
Technical consultants › Structure: Groupe Alto | Fluids and Green Building – INEX | Finances: Bureau Michel Forgue | Roads and External Works: ATPI | Acoustics: J-P Lamoureux | Landscaping: D Paysage | Lighting: SB.RB | OPC : INAFA

Contractors: LAGARRIGUE BTP et INSE: terracing/ foundations/structural work
RENAUDAT: structural steel work SO.PRI.BAT: steel tanks roofing + waterproofing TROISEL SA: ceramic panel cladding + over- roofing
LUMIERE ET FORCE: high and low voltage electricity
REALCO: outdoor fittings and smooth aluminium façade
CONSTRUCTION SAINT-ELOI: metalwork
MISPOUILLE: plumbing/toilets GTVS: heating/ventilation/air-conditioning
OTIS: elevator
LAGARRIGUE: partitions/doubling/false ceilings
BATTUT: indoor wooden fittings
MERZ FABIEN: tiles/earthenware
LE SOL FRANCAIS: soft floors
VEDEILHE: painting/wall coatings
MALET: roads + external works
CAUSSAT: landscaping

Schedule:
Competition: 2005
Building permit: march 2009
Beginning of building work: June 2010
Date of completion: February 2013

Brief:
Subject reference areas, cafeteria, 120-seater auditorium, exhibition room, car parks

Sustainable development:
- Green Building project (Targets 1, 4, 8 and 10)
- Complies with RT 2005 thermal insulation standards
- Use of certified materials
- Balanced ventilation with heat recovery
- Low noise pollution

The post Montauban multimedia library
by Colboc Franzen & Associés appeared first on Dezeen.