Multimedia library Alpha in AngoulĂŞme loci anima December 2015 loci anima
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Interview with Françoise Raynaud, architect founder of loci anima architecture
How does one go about creating an Alpha media library when there has been such a radical shift towards the use of virtual media? FR Today, as architects, it is vital for us to initiate a pooling of spaces. This transition has already been initiated by libraries, seeking to keep pace with the interconnected world we live in today. Our project recognises this change – we wanted to make the Angoulême media library a real, living space that was open to the world, welcoming, accessible, a space that would encourage exchanges and erase social and cultural differences in the heart of the community. A special and unique place but a place that is also familiar, where the people of Greater Angoulême will be able develop their cultural and community mission through ambitious cultural and social projects. You’ve made the Alpha media library a living space where people can get together and exchange ideas. Isn’t this a break with traditional architecture for libraries, which attempts to create a place of silence? FR The interconnected mobile person of today needs mixed spaces, what we call “third spaces”. Spaces other than the home or the workplace where people can enter into communication with others to share new practices and achieve the feeling of belonging to a group. By extending its role, reducing the divide between the public and the private space, the media library is able to draw in a broad spectrum of people from all social backgrounds, without distinguishing
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between them on the grounds of age and gender. The Alpha media library attracts without overwhelming, intrigues but reassures and makes people want to come in. It is familiar and welcoming. It is designed as a space that people can pass through, with easy, fluid access and without constraint. In this era of mobility, working to achieve the shift in our relationships with spaces, we have provided a space of exchanges and singular experiences, a place of awakening and celebration of the five senses, a place where nature is at the heart of the building and where the interior design creates the most ideal space for unique sensorial experiences.
You refer to the Alpha media library as an “urban seamark”. What do you mean by that? FR It is true that in order to fulfil its new mission, the Alpha media library departs from the typological and morphological archetypes of public cultural buildings, which remain “temples to knowledge”, and which many find too daunting to enter. The media library isn’t a building; it is effectively a connected “urban seamark” – a stack of inhabited passageways and bridges, which link up with each other again and again, physically and visually connecting the surrounding spaces and landscapes. The building is actually made up of five evolving “worlds” that are identifiable by the colour-material of the planets or star that are associated with them. So, the world of “creating” is anthracite in reference to Saturn and to lead. The world of “understanding”
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recalls the moon and silver. The world of “imagining” is represented by Jupiter and bronze. The sun and gold are to be found in the world “from one world to another”. Finally, the “worlds’ manufacturer” is red copper, paying homage to Mars.
Nature is a theme that is very important to you. Within a space like this one, which is ultra-connected, how have you approached the relationship between nature and the building? FR We provide something that is complementary and different, which over and above the real performances that are intrinsic to the project visà-vis environmental aspects, adds a symbolic and sensitive dimension. The urban landscape is increasingly cut off from nature but it finds in the elements of life and nature a rich source of dreams and pleasure. Sunshine, air, plant life and metal are all materials used in the construction of the project. With natural ventilation, it is designed entirely to take advantage of and/ or protect against the elements as the seasons change, according to each space’s exposure. On all levels, the spaces are extended outside with terraces or gardens, for indoor/ outdoor living, to make the most of natural light everywhere and to open up or close off the space depending on heat levels and the amount of light necessary or desired.
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Rue Amiral Renaudin
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PLAN DE RDC
92, rue Rochechouart 75009 Paris - France | T:+33 1 43 87 04 97 | F:+33 1 42 93 59 54 | Email: laa@loci-anima.com | www.loci-anima.com
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92, rue Rochechouart 75009 Paris - France | T:+33 1 43 87 04 97 | F:+33 1 42 93 59 54 | Email: laa@loci-anima.com | www.loci-anima.com
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Details projects: Multimedia library Alpha Location: Angoulême, (16) France Program: Media Library, indoor/outdoor garden, amphitheatre, café and restaurant Mission: Complete, including building design and interior design and furnishings, conception and execution drawings and site supervision Floor area: 5 241 sq. m Cost: 13,8 M€ Delivery: 2015, December Client: Community of Greater Angoulême Agglomeration Architect: loci anima (Françoise Raynaud) Structural and HVAC engineers: Grontmij Facade engineers: Van Santen & Associés Environmental engineers: Alto Landscape architect: Exit Acoustic engineers: Avel Security engineers: Casso & associés Quantity surveyor & siteworks direction: Grontmij Building controler: Alpes Controle Site coordination: Ouest Coordination Site security: Socotec Environmental consultant : Addenda Photographer: Philippe Le Roy
Médiathèque Alpha 1 rue Coulomb 16000 Angoulême, France + 33 (0)5 45 94 56 00 lalpha.org
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Multimedia library Alpha
loci anima Franรงoise Raynaud created loci anima, a firm that balances architecture, urbanism and innovation, in 2002 in Paris. The work she does is singular, spiritual, reflects her convictions and her ethics centred on a holistic vision and the continual desire to bring people and genres together. Her spaces create links between people and nature, the human and the animal, the human and plant life in buildings designed to be living entities. Because each project presents the opportunity to introduce a new concept that will embody her vision and because the sky is the limit, the firm has been awarded projects in New Zealand, in Spain and in Vietnam and is currently developing a new concept for a high-rise building in Manhattan, New York City.
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Françoise Raynaud Partner architect Principal & founder Françoise Raynaud has built and worked around the world - Japan, China, Malaysia, Korea, New Zealand, Spain, the USA... Françoise Raynaud, a freethinking architect, put together an international team when she set up her firm loci anima (the soul of the space) in 2002. Since then, she and her team have constantly fought against received ideas and systems. She isn’t motivated by the idea of constructing a corpus of works, but by the creation of living architecture, buildings that are efficient, practical, intelligent and recyclable.
She then worked for Jean Nouvel, building several sensitive projects in Asia (Japan, Korea and China). There she took on board the precepts of Feng Shui which were in line with her ideas as they are based on harmony in the construction of spaces. She advocates an architecture that is heavily inspired by nature in its ability to adapt, in possible shifts, in transformation, in appropriation by all. Buildings are shells that the “human animal” lives in (Eugène Viollet le Duc).
In all of her projects, we find the desire to bring an end to the town/ nature dichotomy. Her architectures are landscapes for living, for inhabiting, for planting. They are architectures that welcome people, plants and animals in cities. Her love of the elements and of nature have drawn her to other cultures, so-called primitive cultures, which are however, in her view much more respectful and responsible than western societies. It is these ideas that drew her, once she’d graduated, to Australia and seek out Glenn Murcutt, the visionary architect inspired by Aboriginal culture.
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Jonathan Thornhill Partner architect International development Jonathan has led projects in all 5 continents of the world, ranging from high-rise offices and condominiums to museums and contemporary art centres. All of these projects are marked with the stamp of the highest design quality, technical rigour and sustainable pertinence. Before joining loci anima in 2007, he worked for Jean Nouvel and led projects such as the Leuum museum in Seoul, and latterly for Shigeru Ban on the Centre Pomidou-Metz. Jonathan has a deep concern for the sense of sustainability in a project, driven by context, be it the immediate surrounding landscape or the geographic position and prevailing climatic conditions. As a student at Manchester Metropolitan University, Norberg-Shultz greatly influenced his ideas about immediate human context, just as Hawking on the quantum context and of what we’re all ultimately made, which as he points out, creates a relationship between animal, vegetal and mineral. He believes that any building is the singularity of these relationships together with the programme.
individual and collective memories. Materials and objects like people and animals have memories thus creating a meaning for our built environment that can be felt when you touch a building. And it’s at the first single moment of coming into physical contact with a building, through a doorway or at a street corner, that our first impression is the most important. Since joining loci anima, Jonathan has brought an added sensitivity to the detailed design of their projects, carrying though the conceptual ideas of the project from the inception stages into the execution project phases. Often the source of innovative façade design in response to the ever complexification of the technical and programmatic nature of projects, his idea is to simplify rather than complexify and to find the just and most sustainable and sensitive design possible right down to the last nut and bolt.
Jonathan believes that architecture should be able to reveal the same organic and living idea in our contemporary buildings like the collage of experiences in our own loci anima
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2015 latest projects Office building In situ Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Location: 57/59 rue Yves-Kermen, Boulogne-Billancourt (92) France Program: Headquarters offices, day-care centre, company restaurant, terraces on the highest levels Floor area: 14 161 sq. m Cost: 32 M€ Delivery: Octobre 2015 Client: SCI Boulogne Ville A4E a. Co promotion Vinci Immobilier, Nexity Architecte: Loci Anima Architecture (Françoise Raynaud) Project director: Jonathan Thornhill Constructin manager: Delphine Lottin Assistant: Cécile Céleste Structural engineers: SNC Lavalin Facades engineers: DVVD Photographer: Jean-Pierre Porcher
Immeuble In Situ 57/59 rue Yves Kermen 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt France 26
2015 latest projects
Cinema les Fauvettes Paris, France
Location: 58 avenue Gobelins, Paris 13e France Programme: 5 cinema theatres, 646 seats. Floor area: 1 722 sp. m Cost: 6,5 M€ Calendar: Delivery: 2015 november, Construction duration : 20 months Client: Les Cinémas Pathé Gaumont Architect: loci anima (Françoise Raynaud) Project manager: Vincent Laplante Construction assistant: Clémence Marguet Project manager (studies): Xavier Maunoury Decorator: Jacques Grange Project manager: Alain Dejonghe Facade artist: Miguel Chevalier Photographer: Jean-Pierre Porcher
Cinéma Les Fauvettes 58, avenue des Gobelins 75013 Paris France +33 (0)1 45 63 73 04 cinemalesfauvettes.com loci anima
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92 rue de Rochechouart 75009 Paris, France + 33 (0)1 43 87 04 97 laa@loci-anima.com loci-anima.com
Communication 43 rue de Lancry 75010 Paris, France + 33 (0)9 53 99 97 81 info@aha-paris.com aha-paris.com