Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande town hall by LAN
13/05/2016.
[Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, Brittany] France
metalocus, CLAUDIA CENDOYA
metalocus, CLAUDIA CENDOYA
Thus, LAN Architecture has taken the problems inherent to the plot, transforming them into future capabilities. The study, already versed in urban regeneration projects, continues with its well known minimalist aesthetic based on metal boxes. This decision allows to minimize the impact of the town hall in the area but provides the necessary flexibility for future developments in its immediate context.
Description of the project by LAN Architects
The new town hall building at Saint-Jacques de la Lande is an ideal opportunity to combine an urban strategy and an architectural gesture.
Aware of this, we tried to imagine a place that could be a workspace providing state services, a symbolic representation of a community, and a public space capable of generating new collective uses.
The place we created is a response to a question: “How can you create a symbol in a limited amount of space, with a limited budget and on a plot too big?” or, put differently, “Is it possible to resolve the plot’s specific scale problems and transform its constraints into assets?”
We tried to develop this project from a clear standpoint: that the new town hall building has to be a place capable of generating life:
- a place more than a building,
- a meeting place rather than somewhere one goes for administrative purposes.
- a clear, unitary image that can create an identity without resorting to the clichés inherent in buildings representing state authority.
- a workplace concerned more with the intelligence of its space than the materials and techniques used to create it.
The project’s federative element is its contemporaneity, and in our view this primarily means minimising impacts, developing a potential and foreseeing future evolutions.
We based our design on easy legibility of the building’s various services, clearly indicated around naturally-lit patios, and the spatial organisation around a central hall.
Our architectural, environmental and economic approach to these programmatic and urban constraints, combined with our will to create a building housing extensive areas of superstructure and limiting intermediate load-bearers to a minimum, gives it the flexibility indispensable for its running and future evolutions.
Benoit Jallon. 18th May 1972 Grenoble (fr). Fascinated by the body’s structure with its logical organisation, layers and strata, Benoit Jallon first turned to medical studies. However, his need for involvement and creativity soon led him to begin studying architecture. He graduated from the Villette School of Architecture in 2001 with a special mention from the jury. Curiosity and a thirst for knowledge have led him to travel widely, particularly in Italy.
Umberto Napolitano. 27th November 1975 Naples (it). Umberto Napolitano began his architectural studies in Italy and completed them in France at the Villette School of Architecture where he graduated in 2001 with a special mention from the jury. He rapidly developed a critical approach to the separation between theory and practice. In parallel with his architectural education, he also worked with a number of architects. His involvement in Franco-American workshops has given his work an international flavour and allowed him to absorb other cultures and skills.
LAN (Local Architecture Network) was created by Benoît Jallon and Umberto Napolitano in 2002. LAN has received several awards: the Nouveaux Albums de la Jeune Architecture (NAJA) prize awarded by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (2004); the International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Urban Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies, the Archi-Bau Award, the Special Prize at the 12th World Triennale of Architecture, Sofia (2009); the AR Mipim Future Projects Award and the Europe 40 Under 40 Award (2010). In 2011 the office was awarded at the LEAF Awards with the Best Sustainable Development in Keeping with its Environment prize and at the SAIE Selection Awards.