Bodegas Protos

Peñafiel, Spain

Parcs en Scène - Thiais

Paris, France

Location

Paris, France

Client

Linkcity Ile-de-France

Area

3,229,173 sq ft

Date

2017 - ongoing

Co-Architect

Tolila+Gilliland

Landscape Architect BASELAND

Planning Consultant

Cultiver La Ville

The Parcs en Scène project is a mixeduse masterplan and development located on a challenging site near Orly Airport in Paris. Selected following a competition as part of the “Inventons la Métropole” (or Inventing the Metropolis) initiative in 2017, the proposed masterplan is structured by a tracery of linear green fingers that follow the imprint of the disused rail lines that permeate the site, many of which have been re-appropriated by vegetation.

In Sector 1 where RSHP are the lead designers, the project includes 1,399,308 sq ft of mixed-use development principally made up of housing, hostels, hotels, student and sheltered accommodation as well as a school. In addition, a new digital hub that will include a 2500 seat e-sport arena will anchor the amenity offer on the site. This new auditorium flexibly accommodates events at a variety of scales to form a key part of a digital, virtual and creative industries cluster: Training and teaching spaces, rental accommodation for startups, a hotel, restaurants and retail, as well as a climbing wall and virtual reality arcade, are incorporated within this single building, strategically located on a key pedestrian route that connects the station at Pont de Rungis with the Belle Épine shopping centre.

The “Scène Digitale” building also serves to signal the presence of the new quarter, bounding one edge of a new square that terminates the green axis that structures the masterplan.

With the extension of Line 14 of the Paris Metro and the construction of the Grand Paris Express line, the new neighbourhood will be exceptionally well connected by public transport, now only 20 minutes from central Paris. The design of the district favours walking and cycling, with vehicular traffic excluded from the large public space that constitutes the heart of the neighbourhood.

Currently occupied by dispersed warehouse buildings and extremely difficult to navigate on foot, the Parcs en Scène project at Thiais represents not only a challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity: the masterplan transforms a site formerly dominated by heavy infrastructure into a well-connected, permeable and intimate green district. Following an exploration of how urban and semi-urban lifestyles will evolve, the masterplan places an emphasis on the well-being of its residents, offering immediate access to a wide variety of public and private outdoor spaces.

Large expanses of greenery permeate the neighbourhood, creating visual continuity throughout, as well as biodiversity. The new “habitats” that are proposed encourage participation and the shared use of communal space.

The masterplan seeks to deliver a coherent framework for the buildings that will emerge on the site. A common language and simple palette of materials is proposed, tying the neighbourhood together. However, each and every building is different in size, massing and proportion.

Building heights vary across the site, generating transitions that offer a variety of situations according to setting, orientation and the relationship with open space. In this way, one experiences a diversity of experience across a development that is significant in scale. The buildings respond to the way the sun tracks across the neighbourhood, providing shade where needed whilst also optimizing daylight to both gardens and residents, shielding open space from the prevailing winds and, where required, screening the heart of the site from the presence of the rail tracks and motorway that bound the site to the north and south.

Location London, UK

Client Clivedale

Date 2015 - ongoing

Area 204,116 GEA sq ft

Structural Engineer

Ramboll UK

Services Engineer Hoare Lea

Landscape Architect

Spacehub

Access Consultant Reef Associates

Townscape Consultant

Richard Coleman

CityDesigner

Quantity Surveyor Gardiner & Theobald

Contractor ISG

Planning Consultant DP9

22 Hanover Square London, UK

Inspired by existing Georgian terraces on Hanover Square, RSHP have designed a grand townscape structure to hold a contemporary mixed-use development, providing residential and hotel accommodation in the heart of London’s Mayfair Conservation Area.

After extensive consultation with the City Council’s planning and design officers, Historic England, the Greater London Authority, local stakeholders and interest groups, the existing building at 22 Hanover Square has been demolished, and the new scheme provides up to 80 residential units for The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair; 50-room hotel, a new public restaurant and glazed courtyard, bar and lounge, gym, and spa with pool for the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

The building takes the form of two pavilions, housing both hotel and residential accommodation and linked by a recessive stair and lift core that serves all levels and defines the two volumes of the building. Grand terraces are created at roof level to provide communal and private outdoor spaces overlooking Hanover Square.

Behind a structural colonnade, the hotel and residential entrances take the form of a covered public entryway which provides access to a glazed double-height lowerlevel covered courtyard. On the lower two levels – 19,6 ft below ground - a pool, and restaurants and bars, are visible through glazed floors, giving a sense of drama and activity underfoot.

The facade is composed of a Vierendeel structural frame which expresses column and beam elements infilled with brick panels and glazed window openings. Vierendeel structures are traditionally horizontal and generally used in bridges, or long span industrial trusses, but RSHP have designed a vertically oriented Vierendeel structure to uniquely support a contemporary architectural expression of wide internal spans and a grand townscape facade.

The structure embodies the client’s desire for flexible floorplates, but it is also a townscape response to the facade scale and rhythm of the historic urban grain and the neighbouring Georgian buildings.

The scheme acknowledges the expected significant increase in footfall due to the new Bond Street Crossrail station; the renewal of Hanover Square and associated public realm improvements and has made provision for high-quality paving and public art and created a dropoff area for hotel guests and residents. This wider strategy for the area will greatly enhance pedestrian experience as well as vehicular movement.

Mixed Use

One Monte Carlo Monaco

This mixed-use project redeveloped the site previously occupied by the Sporting d’Hiver building, located next to the Place du Casino in the very heart of Monte Carlo. Bounded by the Hôtel de Paris, the Hôtel Hermitage and the neighboring Petit Afrique park, the old building block dominated the streetscape but offered little public access through the site. RSHP have designed a series of mixed-use pavilions creating a very permeable new city quarter that will provide high end residential, retail and restaurant accommodation, office and conference facilities as well as an art gallery within a landscaped public realm. This key location in Monte Carlo is reasserting its historical role in the economic, social and cultural development of the Principality.

The newly created central street connects from the Hôtel de Paris to the Petit Afrique park creating an enhanced sense of place. With the aim of bringing the informal character of the park into the scheme the new street is enlivened by rich landscaping, casual seating and vertical planting on the residential pavilion facades.

The organization of the elegantly curved residential pavilions is modular and flexible, offering opportunity for a wide range of apartment fit-out options. A generous retractable façade system allows the interior living quarters of each apartment to transform into an external living space, also maximizing extraordinary views of the city, the Mediterranean and the mountains. Deeply recessed glazed circulation cores between each pair of buildings act to mitigate the impact of the pavilions from the massing point of view. Light wells between the pavilions allow daylight to filter into the landscaped courtyards adjacent to the conference facilities located below ground,

The locally renowned Salle des Arts from the original Sporting d’Hiver building has been reinstated as the heart of the conferencing facilities. These facilities are made up from a comprehensive suite of rooms providing a flexible multi-use amenity in a central location. The new art gallery, submerged within the Petit Afrique park, can be joined to extent these public facilities further, but is to operate as an independent destination gallery for most parts of the year.

Location

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Date

2008 – 2019

Client

Société des Bains de Mer de Monaco

Cost

€250 million

Site Area

54,540 sq ft

Gross Floor Area

802,933 sq ft

Local Architect

Alexandre Giraldi

Architecte D.P.L.G.

Structural Engineer

Tractebel

Engineering S.A.

Environmental Services Engineer

EDEIS

Cost Consultant

Thorne & Wheatley

Landscaping

Jean Mus & Compagnie

Façade Engineer

Arcora

Lighting Design

TG Lighting

Acoustics

Capri Acoustique

Location London, UK

Date 2010 - 2016

Client Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Cost £120 million

Internal Area 215,278 sq ft

Co-Architect Stantec

Structural Engineer Arup

Services Engineer Arup

Main Contractor Laing O’Rourke

Clinical Strategies Jackie ChurchwardCardiff