Orionis Planetarium and Observatory / Snøhetta

Textual content description offered by the architects. Located on a outstanding web site, between the adjoining Scarpe river, the archaeological museum Arkéos and a close-by residential complicated, the undertaking goals to harmoniously join these components and create an accessible and provoking house for guests. Snøhetta’s design is a unified constructing with curves that wrap across the two domes of the projection room and the observatory.

In shut collaboration with CET Ingénierie, Influence Conseil et Ingénierie, Cicanord, Studio Dap and Atelier Silva Landscaping, Snøhetta has been engaged on the constructing since late 2019, seeing the undertaking via from idea to development. Orionis opened to the general public on the thirteenth of Could 2023.

Ellipse – a timeless and fluid idea

“We needed to suggest a unprecedented assembly place and a brand new vacation spot for the inhabitants of Douai. The architectural and concrete idea of our undertaking takes its inspiration from the elliptical motion of the celebrities. Being steady, fluid and perpetual are notions that we’ve reinterpreted within the undertaking, not solely when it comes to the form but in addition within the expertise that guests can have of the planetarium, all senses employed” explains Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, co-founder of Snøhetta.

The idea of steady motion has impressed the undertaking all through, defining every thing from the reception space, the exhibition areas, the amphitheater, and the domes of the constructing. The constructing is linked by a barely inclined ramp, seen from the skin via the constructing’s partly translucent façade.

Built-in into the native surroundings

The notion of timelessness can also be discovered within the steady motion of the Scarpe river and the encompassing panorama that weaves a bodily and visible hyperlink to the planetarium. It’s designed to combine seamlessly with the Arkéos Museum and shares landscaped areas and parking heaps supposed to attach these two cultural entities.

The 2 domes intention to be a visible sign that may be seen from afar whereas not impacting the native neighborhood. Snøhetta’s purpose was to disclose the constructing’s program and performance from the outside via its shapes.

Linking panorama to its environment

The design of the outside areas has two distinct characters; the encompassing panorama and an elliptical inside courtyard. Each assist to create a coherent and contextualized cultural vacation spot that takes benefit of the excellent options of the location whereas integrating seamlessly with the encompassing panorama.

The panorama is designed to advertise biodiversity and integrates the supplies current on the location. The backyard has a steady pathway that connects varied outside areas and the constructing. The trail is paved with pure bluestone from Belgium, offering a further layer of texture and visible expression. Additionally, vegetation and bushes are strategically positioned to combine the parking areas and the forecourt.

The roof is planted with wild grass, making a pure and natural visible ingredient that’s extremely seen contained in the constructing.

As soon as contained in the constructing, the planted and glazed patio is seen from all inside areas and works as a peaceful outside house, offering a connection to the pure panorama exterior.

Customers on the coronary heart of the undertaking

The design of the constructing addresses the wants of the numerous customers sustaining a way of coherence and continuity with the general theme of the planetarium.

The customer circuit flows easily from the doorway, via the reward store and exhibition house, all the best way to the immersive room. Then, the ramp gently brings the viewers again right down to the bottom flooring and in direction of the exit.

Particular areas have devoted entry to make sure that the flows don’t intersect, such because the observatory space and workplaces on the primary flooring.

Materiality a key ingredient

The planetarium’s exterior envelope is impressed by the encompassing area and the supplies utilized in close by buildings such because the Arkéos Museum and brick homes. The undertaking consists of three primary colours: the evolving wooden coloration of the poplar, the rust coloration of the metal brise-soleils, and the sunshine grey PVC membrane that covers the dome of the projection room.

The colour of the metal panels in entrance of the curtain partitions on the primary façade and wooden siding, each impressed by the Arkéos Museum, contribute to a cohesive design that blends with the surroundings.

The roof of the decrease stage close to the neighboring parcels is vegetated, including a pure ingredient that helps combine the undertaking into the present web site panorama. The screening room dome is roofed with a light-weight grey PVC membrane, lowering its visible impression and enhancing the trail of the ramp that winds across the façade.

Sustainability ambitions

Sustainability performed an necessary function within the design of the undertaking. The heating for the showroom’s flooring is equipped by geothermal vitality, and it gives heating for the constructing in the course of the winter and cooling in the course of the summer time. Moreover, sensors are put in on a number of openings to permit for clever pure air flow. Lastly, the sunshades and the inexperienced roof additionally contribute to a accountable regulation of the constructing’s temperature and rainwater. Domestically sourced supplies had been most well-liked to restrict the carbon footprint and permit for a low environmental impression development web site.