A good atmosphere still presides over the great work

The book is singular, slightly kitsch in its design, but he forces the admiration by the generosity of its spaces in relation to the landscape of the edges of Marne and, especially, by the quality of its implementation. Located in Champigny-sur-Marne, the departmental Centre of educational documentation (CDDP) of the Val-de-Marne will be delivered next month, a few weeks late on re-entry, and person eager to, the master General Board book, home municipality or even services of Education national recipients of the building.

Each holds its breath, attentive to the good end of a book that promises quality of use, fun and sustainability. Its architects, Dominique and Giovanni Lelli, winners of a competition won in 2006, welcome to at the outset the good atmosphere on this operation modest in size and the cost of the work (3,300 m2 with parking for EUR 6.6 million), but significant and symbolic for local elected officials as for teachers waiting for equipment. The Lelli were the love of the great work and their love is contagious. They do share the eager to sponsor as to performers mobilized in all the trade to obtain a faultless finish from the raw material.

The first passion of Giovanni goes to the concrete, in all its jobs and in all its aspects. Each of the achievements of the couple, education or housing sites, bears the mark and demonstration value. On each site, it attaches to experiment with a specific implementation or unpublished plastic effects, with the assistance of the company shipped, always motivated and invited her to Excel. In this case, CBC Ile-de-France noted the challenge of a large acrobatic work, with a volume cantilever at both ends, and two concrete contrasted in appearance.

Two bodies of building multiples

Consisting of two separate components, CDDP program is here literally transcribed in two bodies of building multiples along a central axis of distribution to the public on the one hand, administration of the other places. Each is a typology of spaces and architectural record with the Assembly issued a composite and dual work. Strange coupling articulated this blade of offices on four levels in the nave of the public rooms, media library in Bow River and boardroom to stern on the town! Between the two, the entrance hall draws a vertical fault occupied by a monumental staircase leading to the sky in three successive volleys. Forward overhang from the shore, the nave is part noble and emblematic of the work, its bow teasing the plane of the wharf. Perfectly readable on the adjacent track, his profile in long figure, of the admission of the architect, "a kind of boat landed on her keel."

Most induced that free, the metaphor is however dictated by the proximity of water. "The terrain is classified in the flood zone, we had to have maximum surfaces above the flood line, says Giovanni Lelli, and two main functions are thus arranged in the air, cantilevered on the parvis in front and the back of the Court." Relativizing the difficulty of the exercise, described architect sails in hanger which suspend two large volumes from the media library and the auditorium, and the key role of the keel which postpones efforts in the Foundation deeply buried to the good ground. "The form responds to environment of banks and the strong presence of building nearby of the Air Liquide society, holding historic places", defends Dominique Lelli. As proposed, the bow of the media library maintains a cohesive report with the landscape banks"that it a huge glass Bay. A giant window opens on the sides of the nave, above the keel, to illuminate the crossroads of the circulations in the centre of the building. Explicit citation of the American architect Louis Kahn, this oval eye is reproduced on the three parallel sails cut the interior space.

This part protruding from the building and public is carried out in cement concrete white self-compacting, carefully coffré and birthed, whose smooth, homogeneous surfaces are the single siding both inside and outside of the work. Light widely provided sliding on this pallid skin and lustre in places marked with ornamental fingerprints.

Environmental quality

On the opposite flank, the facade of the offices have a rough material generated by a grey concrete, also self-compacting, sunk in a formwork of artistically disjunct clipboards with holes for punctuation of chizeled headers. Recovery joints are undetectable in such an apparatus similar to a traditional masonry by the grain and stratification. Also treated the approaches enhance is other works crude concrete with walls with flashings for rainwater collection, in accordance with the environmental quality by design, and a few foundations embedded stones. The effects of material abundance, freedom of line and the quality of finishes contribute, whether or not, is like it felt warm and rewarding that identifies the building. This level of requirement wins all trades to contribution, whether it stretched iron of a carefully assembled railings, profile Oak of a handrail in a bleeding of concrete or granito of the staircase. Discreet tribute is paid to companies and workers of the shipyard whose names appear on the acoustic Panel suspended from the ceiling of the media library. A good atmosphere still presides over the great work.