Dumont d’Urville, Angers | France
22 september 2023
Project: Dumont d’Urville, Angers | France
Architect: Latitude architectes, Rennes | France
Distributor: Sunclear, Couëron | France
Installer: Bouygues Bâtiment Grand-Ouest, Angers | France
Façade System: Riveted?/?Screwed
Year of Construction: 2020
Product: ALUCOBOND® A2 Smoke Silver Metallic + Grey Metallic + Silver Metallic + special colours
Photos: Arthur Corgier
FINE ATTIRE
Positioned on a route heading to the Atlantic coast, the beautiful old town of Angers is a Unesco World Heritage Site. However, the suburbs around Angers are spoilt by some botched buildings and by social stigmatisation. Five 1970s residential tower blocks stand in the south of the city. Towering over the city, each of these thirteen-storey blocks with their weather-beaten concrete façades contains 320 social housing units. Time and vandalism have taken their toll especially on the surfaces at the base of the buildings: The tiles on the façades were damaged or chipped, entrance areas dirty, shabby and unappealing. While the city was in the process of upgrading the towers’ energy and technical building systems, it set about enhancing the architecture and, in conjunction with social measures, improved the housing situation as a whole. The entrance halls were fitted with large glass doors, and modern surfaces and different coloured walls updated the interior. Thermal insulation was applied to the existing façades before they were clad in dark ALUCOBOND® panels in four different shades of grey. The dark, glossy façade material does not only ensure a contemporary, elegant appearance, ALUCOBOND® also provides a high level of resistance to weathering and vandalism. Panels were chosen in different formats, sizes and gloss levels as a means of introducing more variety into the large expanses of façade and reducing them to a more human scale. In this way, the windows, which used to seem overwhelmed by their surroundings in the perforated façade, were successfully and subtly integrated into a coherent façade grid. Clad in ALUCOBOND®, the new conservatories and balustrades blend in well, enhance the narrow balconies’ usefulness and add stability. Like a face with batting eyelids, the white shutters enliven the dark façade and emphasise individual details. All in all, the dark and elegant ALUCOBOND® panels increase the intrinsic value of the buildings. And people who live in quality architecture feel the same as when dressed in fine attire, more self-confident and more valued.