Maison de l'innovation | France
30 april
Project: Maison de l'innovation, Nantes // France
Project owner: La Poste Immobilier
Architect: La Poste Immobilier, in collaboration with the architectural firm Baumschlager Eberle Architectes, Paris // France
Fabricator: TIM COMPOSITES, Cholet // France
Installer: GROUPE LEGENDRE, Saint Herblain // France
Project management: EGIS (general contractor), Elioth (façades), ITAC (acoustics consultant), Sinopia (landscape architect), BEGC (kitchen designer).
Façade system: Riveted/Screwed + Tray panels special design
Year of construction: 2024
Product: ALUCOBOND® PLUS premium anodised Old Copper
Photos: Romain Gautron
Resonance in a cityscape
About one kilometre in width and almost five kilometres long, the Île de Nantes, an island in the city centre of Nantes, is remarkable for its topography alone. It is surrounded by two branches of the Loire, the “bras de la Madeleine” and the “bras de Pirmil, and connected by numerous bridges. Since the shipbuilding industry’s decline in the 1980s, the area has been undergoing a steady process of transformation, gradually evolving from a cluster of shipyards, industrial plants, and warehouses into a lively, mixed-use urban area.
The “Maison de l’Innovation”, a digital and competence centre where the La Poste Group has now grouped its various IT divisions, was created within this urban environment. Designed by architects at Baumschlager Eberle Architekten in collaboration with the engineering firm Egis and the wood specialists at Elioth, a seven-story hybrid building now stands on the 8,400-square-metre site. Responding to its surroundings, the building’s nuanced façade design is a delicate louvered cladding in copper-coloured metal, intermittently interrupted on all four sides by differently positioned rounded arches. These attractive, rhythmic spaces make the massive volume look less dense, reveal its depth and convey openness. Depending on how the light falls, the metallic surfaces have an iridescent, warm-hued appearance, and – as the architects put it – in combination with the glazing behind them, create the illusion “that the building is in perpetual motion with the façades reflecting the city itself.” To achieve this effect, the architects selected low sheen “E5002 Old Copper Matt Finish” anodised aluminium panels from the ALUCOBOND® PLUS series. In the interior, the material used for the load-bearing structure of this multi-layered building envelope is revealed – wood – spanning approximately 15,300 square metres of floor space. Only the building cores and parts of the base are concrete. The wooden structure above them embodies an overall concept focused on conserving resources – as poised and natural as the building’s integration into the cityscape as an urban sculpture.