Channelbeta - Citè du Design - LIN - Finn Geipel+Giulia Andi

The Centre International du Design is a new institution for communication, research and education in design. The project is situated on the historical site of the National Arms Manufacture in St. Etienne, a former essential industrial site of the area. Its rehabilitation represents a first step in the recent development will of the city.

The project involves the renovation of several historical buildings, as well as the integration of a new building, the platine (200 x32 m), an observation tower (31m high), two gardens and the Place d’Armes, a large public esplanade. They are conceived in the historical urban context which develops a succession of public spaces in the North-South axis of the local valley.

The platine is an interclimatic laboratory whose adaptive skin is enveloping several programs such as exhibition spaces, an auditorium, the agora, a greenhouse and a media- and material library. It is reacting on their different needs in terms of light and climate, while at the same time articulating the different activities in the Cité du Design.

Programme articulation

The project was designed based on major elements of the site – the Hanging Gardens, the Place d'Armes, the Bâtiment de l’Horloge, the Ateliers and the Grande Usine – and a new connecting element, the structure of a slender building, the Platine. This is thought of as the articulation between the hierarchical figure and the site's heritage discontinuity and the continuous matrix required by the institutional programme. It facilitates crossconnections between the centres of a non-hierarchical network and provides covered public transit, hosting the most open activities of the Cité du design. Indeed, this monospace brings together the communicative activities in the Agora, the exhibition halls, the auditorium and the material library. A place of merging and irrigation for the site, relative to the town, its exact positioning in the area makes it function as an inner street, interfering as little as possible with the visibility of the Bâtiment de l’Horloge and allows visual integration with the Place d'Armes and the town centre as well.

Observatory

The project scope and ambition led to a partial sequencing of openings, back to back, including the celebrations of the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial. In 2006, the Observatory emerged as the first element to be established, directing the interaction between architecture, future programs, public reception and opportunities of the site. Aside from the Bâtiment de l'Horloge, this tower, assembled on site, made the project known to Saint Etienne's population by offering a novel perspective on the town and becoming a notable landmark, identifiable with the Cité du design. Located at the junction of different areas of the Manufacture, the Observatory shatters the apparent symmetry of the structures and the visual hierarchy between the façade and the production areas. Overlooking the other buildings, its elevation lets the process of building the Cité du design be observed throughout the construction period. Today it has assured its place as a lookout.

Overall Design

The rehabilitation of existing buildings and improvement of their ecological performance was done with the intention of conserving as much of the spatial properties as possible and to provide them with more flexibility. The Platine is a very different experimental structure, which handles interior climate through the responsiveness of its envelope. The exterior spaces network the various activities of the Cité.

Interclimatic Laboratory

The Platine is designed as a whole, where each part interacts with its environment, and where each element is both the result and the determinant of other factors. The technique extends to the sides and the basement, leaving the space created as free and open as possible. Its climatic design precisely regulates the climatic environments and tends to energy independence. The succession of different areas within the Platine is marked by partition walls called filters. They guarantee both acoustical protection and individual climatic stability, as in the example of the Greenhouse. The climatic design varies according to the area. This climate gradation allows interior conditions to be adapted to needs without having to treat the entire volume of the Platine. However, the zones are themselves interactive, forexample, the pre-conditioned air from the Greenhouse is taken for the benefit of the winter aeration of the attached zones. The two layers of the envelope are involved in climatic regulation. The outer layer of the various panels can modulate the inputs into the different areas according to their needs. It filters the light, absorbs and transforms it into energy, and also regulates air and heat exchanges. On the interior surfaces, natural ventilation, heating and cooling via a reversible heating/cooling floor, and a low emissivity (low E) layer on the underside of the envelope increase occupants' thermal comfort. The low emissivity layer of interior walls enables the energy dissipated by the heating/cooling floor to be reflected, like a thermal mirror. Under the Platine a geothermal energy system is implemented, via thermal activation of foundation piles, use of Canadian well for pre-conditioning of fresh air and air exchanges between zones to reduce energy consumption.

Geothermal energy and Canadian wells

Geothermal energy consists of two combined networks: the first, a field of twenty-four probes in a double U with a length of 100 ml each, provides available energy of 130 kW; the second, a field of piles (1st in France), composed of recovery loops in the one hundred foundation piles (tubes set in the reinforcing bar cages) of the Platine building, giving available energy of 80 kW. The heat pump provides 290 kW of available power to the heated floor. A heat transfer fluid circulates in the two networks to recover energy available in the ground and is collected to the local heat pump. In winter, these two networks also serve for heating by the heated floor; in summer for cooling with the cooling floor of the Platine building.
The French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) and the energy provider Électricité de France (EDF), with the support of the Scientific and Technical Centre for Building (CSTB), will conduct an energy follow-up over two years. To do this, ten energy meters, five electricity meters, probe equipment and metering on the piles have been implemented. The ground temperature around two piles at different depths is recorded to follow the temperature change throughout the seasons. A Canadian well is used to treat the air. To make this technology as economical as possible, the crawl space under the Platine is enclosed and can therefore assure this function.

Structure of the Platine

The structure of the Platine is a kind of latticed unit , formed by a three dimensional mesh consisting of metallic profiles of minimum size and based on a 2.10 m frame. It becomes both the roof and walls. The homogeneity and distribution of forces in all directions generate a non-hierarchical structure - a monospace free of any intermediate support. Seen from inside, the minimal dimensions of the profiles transform the structure into a vibration marking the boundary between the interior and the exterior.

Skin

The Platine's envelope, consisting of 14,000 equilateral triangles of 1.20 m per side is a graduated and reactive skin: modulation between opaque and clear, insulated or interclimatic, open or closed, reflects and accompanies the various cycles and interactions of the Cité du design. In order to achieve the differentiated ambiences and performances for each space of the Platine, the types of modules are combined according to their characteristics. The choice of glazing type allows a distribution of natural light depending on the use of the premises. Thermal qualities of the panels permit the climatic quality of the envelope to be modulated according to unplanned criteria of the premises. The opportunity to integrate solar panels (photovoltaic and experimental) in the skin of the Platine will allow solar energy production, as well as development and testing of innovative solar energy materials. The skin reacts continuously to changes in climate. It may also be given new functions. In the longer term, the panels may be replaced or modified to be adapted to changing needs or to expand the areas of experimentation.

Photovoltaic panels

The modular triangular panels which make up the façade of the Platine easily integrate into one coherent system the energy producing elements, including photovoltaic panels. Photovoltaic solar energy is a renewable form of energy which produces electricity by transforming a part of the solar radiation with a photovoltaic cell. Many cells are connected together in a solar photovoltaic module which can take different configurations and fit into a standard triangular panel. The energy produced is reinjected into the global network and contributed in its scale to reduce the load on production centres for fossil energy supply of electricity.

Experimental panels

120 m² of the surface is set aside for installing experimental panels, which may evolve or be replaced following technological advances. Currently these are proposed photosynthesis panels.
These cells are inspired by photosynthesis and consist of a titanium dioxide layer on one side covered with a dye called a "sensitizer" and on the other side with an electrolytic solution. When a light ray strikes the dye, an electron is ejected. All the electrons released cross the oxide, are collected at the edge of the cell and then are directed to an external circuit.
Light

The Platine skin not only regulates climate but also lighting, by changing the angles for blocking the light. The luminosity reacts to outdoor conditions and inside needs. The panels provide controlled lighting in exhibition areas or areas with high light levels, such as the Greenhouse or the Agora.

Gardens

Nature's "work in progress" has accompanied the evolution of the landscape work of the Gardens. Having lost their use, they were abandoned. After a diagnosis of the state of the trees and an analysis of the characteristics of the two historic gardens, it was decided to retain their identities. Today, the sandy soil of the North Garden is endowed with an occupational basis which meets its many uses; the South Garden, designed as a large lawn with standing trees, is characterised by a contemplative atmosphere.

Infoscape

A guidance system for the Cité du design was developed to give access to a better use of information provided by the various actors of the Cité and its external partners. The navigation parameters extend beyond the Cité site limits and provide more direction in space, respond to enterprise communications problems, and bring together the data from the Vocational Training Centre.

Furnishings

The Cité du design furnishings were designed around four types of space use within a broader reflection about the autonomy and interaction in the work zones :

_Collective type (hive): performance zone for routine tasks where each has their own space identified within the larger whole.

_ Concentrated type (cell): production area requiring a space for individual reflection allowing a high degree of concentration.

_ Interactive type (den): Work area for organization for short and intense times with a high degree of interaction between people.

_ Spontaneous exchange type (club):informal area for exchange and interaction with a high degree of flexibility in the use of space to be suitable to different interaction configurations between people.

The debated has been carried out not only on each of the types, but also on the interfaces and transitional zones, and the traffic patterns which exist between them. This way of understanding the space is coherence with opportunities of surfaces and volumes which the architecture offers the Cité. The choice of furniture has been done to create this type of operation and to optimize the use of space. Certain elements have even been invented to initiate the creation of these areas and better integrate them into this particular representation of space (including cubicles).

LIN - Finn Geipel+Giulia Andi

Helmholtzstraße 2 - 9
D 10587 Berlin
Tel +49 30 39 800 900
Fax +49 30 39 800 909
office@lin-a.com

LINKS:

LIN - Architects Urbanists

LIA

PROJECT DATA

PROJECT : Citè du Design

LOCATION : Saint-Etienne, France

ARCHITECTS: Finn Geipel, Giulia Andi, Berlin/Paris

PROJECT TEAM: Stefan Jeske, Philip König (Project Managers) Jan-Oliver Kunze, Judith Stichtenoth, Francois Maisonnasse, Muriel Poncet, Marielle Gilibert, Heiko Walth

ASSISTANT TO THE EXECUTION OF CONSTRUCTION: Benjamin Wallerand- Maurice Guitton,Lyon

LOCAL ARCHITECT&OPC : Dominique Berger + Sandra Tauveron, Cabinet Berger, Saint-Étienne

STRUCTURE: Werner Sobek + Thomas Winterstetter, WSI, Stuttgart/New York

ENGINEERING: Fréderique Binvignat + Christian Desquiens, BETOM Ingénierie, Corbas

CLIMATE: Matthias Schuler + Arnaud Billard, Transsolar, Stuttgart/New York

ECONOMY: Pierre Dumond + Alain Baland, Cyprium, Lyon

ACOUSTIC: Richard Denayrou + Emily Morin, Altia Acoustique, Paris

SCENOGRAHY: Gérard Fleury , Architecture & Technique, Paris

LIGHTING: Andy Sedgwick + Jeff Shaw, Ove Arup, London

LANDSCAPING: Clément Willemin + Frank Poirier, BASE, Paris

DESIGN DE COMMUNICATION: Andreas Schneider, IIDj, Tokyo

PHILOSOPHY: Joseph Hanimann, Paris

SITE

MANUFACTURE D'ARMES : 180.00 m2

CITE' DU DESIGN: 64.000 m2

PROJECT

SURFACE NET: 21.140 m2

OBSERVATORY

HEIGHT: 31m

PLATFORM SURFACE : 100m2

HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

FABRIQUE 5000 : 5.000m2

BATIMENT DE L'HORLOGE : 2.795m2

BATIMENT ATELIERS TECHIQUES-TECHNICA WORKSHOP BUILDINGS: 2230 m2

BATIMENT ATELIERS PEDAGOGIQUS: 3550 m2

PLATINE

SURFACE: 7.465 m2

LENGHT: 193,2 m

WIDHT: 31,2 m

HEIGHT: 4,6 - 6,5 m

SKIN SURFACE : 8.930 m2

PANELS: 14.068

DATES

COMPETITION: 2004

ACHIEVEMENT: 2006 - 2009

COST OF WORK

ESTIMATED COST OF WORK: 37,37 M euro

JOB TENDERS : 39,54 M euro

FINAL COSTS: 41,54 M euro