This article was originally published in Domus 964 / December 2012
In November 2007, Chelles, a town with a population of
little over 50,000 in the French department of Seine-et-Marne,
20 kilometres from the centre of Paris, launched a call for
submissions to build a new sports facility. LAN responded to
the invitation by questioning the coherence of the competition
parameters and the role of the gymnasium in the life of a
suburban town. In their proposal, the gymnasium transcends its
primary function as a sports facility to become an piece of urban
infrastructure that contributes to life in the community.
The key idea underlying the project was to create a genuine town
centre for Chelles. In the architects' view, the site lacked the
necessary urban cohesion as it was already bounded by the town
hall, Weczerka High School and the contemporary arts centre
(housed in the churches of Saint-Georges and Sainte-Croix, the
remaining vestiges of the seventh-century royal abbey). In
addition, the architects wanted to create a form of dramatisation
for visitors as they arrived from the train station, offering
them an immediate announcement of things to come. This
dual requirement was met by dividing the sports centre into
two separate blocks arranged at right angles: the multisports
hall (measuring 1,100 square metres) and the annex (a hall of
289 square metres). Built overlooking the multisports hall, the
smaller annex offers a series of downward views through its
openings. Outside, the slightly sloping piazza comprises a singletoned
esplanade with the rhythmic insertion of contrasting
Corten steel plates. The architects' response to the competition
was thus to recompose the urban environment, drawing
inspiration from the Italian piazza. According to the architects
"The Renaissance has taught us that presence defines absence,
giving the latter its character."
Gymnasium, dematerialised
Commissioned to design a gymnasium in the heart of Chelles, a small town in the Parisian region, Italian-French studio LAN makes a bid to create a social condenser capable of stitching together the urban centre.
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- Léa-Catherine Szacka
- 19 December 2012
- Chelles
Considering a gymnasium to be above all a container, LAN set out to renew the traditional vocabulary of the box, generally seen as compact and opaque. Their solution takes the form of a black monolithic object in pigmented concrete, featuring a glass frontage enlivened by copper-covered strips of varying height. While conferring a precious and elegant character to the whole, the glazing also reflects the existing buildings on the new square, thus duplicating the church and town hall facades. However, more than simply mirroring the surrounding context (a tactic copiously exploited by postmodern architects), the glass frontage springs from the idea of kaleidoscopic reflection, fragmenting and diffracting the image thanks to the copper. As the architects explain, "The façade is a source of ambiguity, a sort of abstraction, a highly geometrical thing." The double skin—composed of the mobile copper panels (sheets of metal glued to a wooden base) placed 18 centimetres from the double-glazed windows—also provides optimum acoustic insulation by absorbing noise and reducing the resonance characteristic of large spaces. Designed in adherence to "green construction" logic, the Henri Bianco Gymnasium meets official French standards certifying a very high level of energy performance, achieved by exploiting the inertia of its insulated raw concrete walls, the site's direct connection to the local geothermal heating network, and the installation of 32 photovoltaic panels on the building.
Founded in 2002 by the Frenchman Benoît Jallon (1972) and
the Italian Umberto Napolitano (1975), LAN Architecture is a
medium-sized practice with offices in the 10th arrondissement
of Paris. Winners of the NAJA (Nouveaux Albums de la Jeune
Architecture) prize in 2004 and numerous other prizes from
2009, the practice can now boast 18 completed projects and
around 15 currently underway. Their constant questioning of the
status quo has won them a number of competitions, including
the commission for the EDF Archives Centre (Bure, France) and a
student residence in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
LAN has its origins at the La Villette School of Architecture
in the north of Paris, driven by a desire to broaden the scope
of architecture to include other disciplines. Napolitano, the
most talkative of the two partners, explains that LAN's chosen
approach is in some way "anti-French". It aims (like a Taller de
Arquitectura for the 21st century) to break down the barriers
between the different disciplines in a project, to add town
planning and design to architecture, along with sociology and
politics. Napolitano adds: "Right from the start of a project
we ask the question of how coherent the brief is with what is
to be produced. In this way, we rethink the whole in order to
reformulate the question. And it is only once the question has
been properly pinned down that we can really begin to look at
what architectural approach would best meet the brief."
Characterised by a minimalist aesthetic, a monolithic appearance and research into innovative facade design, LAN's projects are reminiscent of some works by Herzog & de Meuron
Characterised by a minimalist aesthetic, a monolithic
appearance and research into innovative facade design,
LAN's projects are reminiscent of some works by Herzog & de
Meuron (for example, the library of Eberswalde, 1999; Basel
Station Signal Tower, 1994; or VitraHaus, 2010). In Chelles,
the building's black mass surprises or perhaps even shocks.
However, the "chicane" through which one passes in order to
reach the building from the front of the town hall allows visitors
a leisurely glimpse of the whole before they discover a main
frontage that is lighter and in harmony with its surroundings.
The copper strips create the effect of a precious object while
offering an outer skin that modulates in tune with the weather
and time of day. It remains to be seen if the copper is up to the
job and can retain its colour. Put simply, the dematerialisation
of the peri-urban context serves as a leitmotif for the architects
at LAN, who assert without false modesty: "The city is more
beautiful reflected than it is in reality; seen through our
building it is almost romantic." Léa-Catherine Szacka (@LcSzacka), architecture historian and critic