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Overview I Background
ARCHITECTURE The future building European Center for Virtual Reality (CERV) is designed for a number of different uses:
Many different groups have access to the center: researchers, students, businesses, schools and a specific sector of the public who are "aware" of these animation, modeling and interactive simulation technologies. It must be both a welcoming building, open to those interested in the constant evolution of these new technologies, and a workplace, for research with all the functional elements that that implies, whilst also being calm, confidential and convivial. Furthermore, the CERV is one of the buildings that will structure the technological area, being particularly important due to its emblematic status as an "interface" between research, studies, businesses and the public. Its location on a future square where the natural slope of the land will offer it an impressive presence within the landscape thus supports its architectural tension with the surrounding buildings. Our project aims to reflect these different approaches, being both an open, welcoming, building for those seeking information whose image must be optimized within the public areas, and a research building which must be more confidential, protected, geared specifically towards its purpose and its users, offering calm and conviviality. Our proposal is organized on three levels:
Because of this structure, the technology center square as a whole is organized in a meaningful and attractive manner from the public space, and the research / technological transfer areas are organized around interior and exterior convivial spaces, accessible from reception and management areas. The link between the volumes facing onto the square and onto the garden also offers the advantage of being visible from a number of angles on arrival, with the facade positioned on the driveway to the technology center on arrival from the future Avenue de la Pérouse roundabout (when coming from the ENIB), and the front wall being visible from the main square and thus the surrounding buildings.
Building on a square in this way provides the linear aspect desired, ensuring visual contact with the neighbouring buildings. The facade facing the square is a horizontal raster curtain wall behind which all of the distribution spaces can be found: hall, corridoors, the central walkway, bridges ensuring visual, accoustic and thermic transition with the work areas, which all face east. A fine metallic mesh, installed in front of the curtain wall on the west facade but which will not impede cleaning, serves as a sun-shade whilst at the same time preserving transparency from the interior to the exterior. This facade, which could be likened to a computer screen with an image which has been blown up in order to see its pixels, is thus given an immateriality with regards to the background that shows through it, symbolising the Center for Virtual Reality. This facade will catch the light in different and subtle ways, depending on the time of day and the seasons. Its appearance will thus change, much like a virtual image on a computer whose settings have been altered. Coated in concrete on three sides, the glass and metal facade will be punctuated by the emergant volume of the entrance hall and the managment areas which will indicate the building's functions. This filled volume covered with bakelized wooden panels in contrast to the glass facade, will act as a counterpoint. The entrance hall, open on two levels, gives transparency accross the building towards the garden and the research wings and will be crossed by the bridge thus ensuring the link between the northern and southern parts of the first floor. All of the general service areas are situated underneath the public areas on ground level, between the ground floor and garden-levels. Perpendicular to the public areas, the research and technological transfer centers are grouped around an "internal street" on two levels, accessible from the entrance hall. This interior street, almost entirely glass-fronted on the northern facade serves the garden level research areas, organized around a patio, and the two levels of technological transfer center, via a walkway and interior staircases. This area, opening out onto the patio, will be a convivial area in which researchers, students and industrial parteners can relax and communicate. The building will be structured in a clear, functional, and open manner, despite the regulated access in terms of people allowed to go beyond the public areas. The research and transfer areas will be based on a system of columns and beams with concrete outgoing panels enabling maximum interior scalability. Organizing the building around the two research wings will enable both easy and functional extension into the garden areas. The gardens and car parks are structured around existing or recently created hedges, preserving the topography of the land, and ensuring protection against the wind. They have also been taken into consideration in terms of possible future extensions. In conclusion, the building aims to offer the the image of an open, innovative and evolving structure, which is both welcoming and attractive for the general public as well as providing a protected, studious and convivial environment for the researchers and student who will be working here full-time. It is structured in a meaningful manner in harmony with the other buildings on the square and in the surrounding computer-science oriented technology center. Y. Fauvet |
