Highlights
September - October 2018
AA School, London | SDIS, Rennes | Polaris, Nantes | Maillon Theater, Strasbourg | MSP, Nanterre | Saint-Blaise Nursery, Paris XX | Wood Up Tower, Paris XIII | Saint-Urbain, Strasbourg
AA School of Architecture, London
Form, City & Density, AA Diploma 5 2018-2019
After his experience at Columbia University GSAPP, Umberto Napolitano will be teaching at AA School of Architecture in London for 2018-2019. With Diploma 5 « Form, City & Density », students will learn how to use the city as a material, as a source of infinite ideas and history to develop an architectural project.
SDIS, Rennes
A signal along the Vilaine river
The facade of the SDIS (Departmental Fire and Rescue Service) of Rennes is in progress. The checkerboard pattern of the windows in red concrete tinted in the mass creates a volume open on the outside.
The Polaris District, Nantes
A pedestrian zone
Under construction, the outdoor spaces create a continuity with the Loire banks, inside the Polaris entirely pedestrian district. Although the parcel is private, all the exterior areas are open to the city. The forecourt, heart of the project, will become a public place reconveyed to the city.
Polaris Plot 5, Nantes
Polaris district, interior design of Plot 3 & 5
Interiors of the Polaris district are in progress, and the school of Vatel is already open. The delivery of all buildings is scheduled on December 2018.
Saint-Blaise nursery, Paris
Delivery of the collective nursery and day-care center
Located on Saint-Blaise street in the 20th district of Paris, this project of nursery and day-care center fits into a narrow plot, leading to a layered architecture. This compactness induces a formal readability, excluding any monumental effect, related to its urban context, and at the children’s level.
Minimum Security Prison, Nanterre
The Minimum Security Prison shows new colours
The Corten steel façade of the Minimum Security Prison of Nanterre shows new colors. This first layer made of perforated sheet steel envelops the facade and creates a visual filtration while offering an architecture with a strong and unified identity.
The Maillon Theater, Strasbourg
A monumental facade open to the city
The monumental facade of the Maillon theater, made of black stained concrete is under construction. Cast on site on all its height, the shape of the Maillon draws a parallelepiped open to the city.
Campo | Architecture is everything
4th edition of the annual Workshop and Exhibition at CAMPO in Roma
"Here is a model of architecture, Auguste Perret tells me, showing me a splendid ostrich egg, made of incredibly polished and fine material, arranged according to a beautiful curve. It contains a whole life, an infinitely complex mechanism enclosed within a perfect form of pure limestone, in a simple form devoid of all ornament, a soft and serene form. The complex in the simple, expressed by the simple, a beautiful material arranged according to a beautiful form, such must be the beauty of modern architecture, the beauty that is a respite from our feverish lives. The elegance and harmony of lines, proportions and beautiful materials make a beautiful work, its sincerity, and its real richness." Auguste PERRET (1987-1954)
Saint-Urbain, Strasbourg
News from the construction site
The construction is continuing on ZAC Etoile in Strasbourg. The seven concrete buildings of the block are in progress. A first show apartment will be available in November 2018.
Wood'Up Tower, Paris XIII
The sale offering of the Wood'Up Tower is launched!
The Wood'Up Tower, a project launched by SEMAPA, is on sale. With its exceptional location on the Seine at the corner of Boulevard Jean Simon and Quai d'Ivry, this building will be one of the largest wooden structures in France.
ENSA Paris-Belleville
Conference | Umberto Napolitano | "Forms in motion"
For this conference, Umberto Napolitano concentrates on the essential question of forms in architecture. First creative act of the architect, it generates a second one: imagining movements, giving a building the ability to survive beyond the function it was originally built for. A starting point of a narrative, this approach translates a vision exceeding the client or the function, and considering this continuum that is the city, our city.