Vertbois Constructing / Moussafir Architectes + Inside Exterior Structure

Vertbois Constructing / Moussafir Architectes + Inside Exterior Structure

Restructuring a contemporary constructing within the Haut Marais. This 10-level industrial constructing designed within the Seventies by the Biro Fernier agency is a uncommon instance on this sector of France’s 30-year post-war financial growth. It’s comprised of a 7-story strengthened concrete framework on high of a 3-level underground automotive park constructed with prestressed concrete expertise – progressive for the interval – an inverted vault supporting a suspended backyard within the coronary heart of town block and a Mansard roof profile with 6 lucarnes crowning the constructing, the whole construction is fabricated from shuttered concrete.

Though standing amidst a landmarked district composed solely of protected historic buildings, native authorities (the ABF) decided that it had no heritage curiosity, thereby facilitating the transformation of each the inside distribution and its envelope.  

A impartial and generic construction. Like open-plan flooring with out intermediate columns, the principal high quality of the unique development resided in its impartial and generic character. This general grasp of the constructing’s structure-guided our architectural alternative, from the insertion of inside parts (staircases, guardrails, ground, and ceiling coverings) to the design of the envelope by the use of the selection of supplies and the small print concerning their implementation.

Thus, the staircases and guardrails, in addition to the façades, had been designed as options borrowed from locksmithing, most frequently suspended and dissociated from the concrete construction in an effort to spotlight the loadbearing position of the unique shell in relation to those “borrowed” options.

Flats like workplaces. Just like the façade on the road, which has a pitch of 1m36, and the façade on the backyard, which is 10 meters lengthy and has no intermediate load-bearing construction, the rationality of the pillar and beam system enabled the transition from a single-purpose to a mixed-use constructing superimposing housing with workplaces.  Our choice to show the construction offered the motivation to not differentiate the dwelling areas from the workplaces and to design the flats like workplaces.

Modernist ideas and brutalist aesthetics. Along with demonstrating the multi-purpose side of an strange construction, our goal was to claim the relevance of the constructing’s modernist ideas (open plans, grid, and façade open to the north, ribbon home windows to the south) and to focus on its brutalist aesthetic by enhancing its materiality.