Located in an industrial zone beside the town of Saint-Claude, this complex of offices and logistics premises is an operations centre for the electrical management of the grid.
Given the unprepossessing character of the zone, in terms of buildings and landscape, we decided to work on its generic potentialities.
Backing onto a wooded slope on the upper side of the industrial zone, the site looks out over a valley.
We created a new landscape with large horizontal areas supported by shaped concrete walls, on which the buildings stand. They are integrated with their surroundings, in contrast to the type of “box plonked down on a site” that generally characterises industrial zones.
Our landscaping approach was consistent with our treatment of the buildings and the terrain, producing clarity in terms of technical and general types of utilisation.
The open spaces do not simply result from the functional application of the design, but from a dialectical relationship between landscape, architecture and utilisations.
Black was chosen for the façades and the roof, in keeping with the dark wooded mountain background. It also intensifies the warm colours we used for the inside of the building.
The construction was based entirely on standard industrial metal components.
This project illustrates how a dry construction method can satisfy all the different criteria imposed by this type of programme: economy, quality, adaptability and speed of construction.