This project involves the development within a former industrial hall of an incubator for businesses involved in the digital economy.
The key quality of this hall is found in the large central space of its nave, and preserving it and opening it up towards the public spaces are therefore a major aspect of this project. We have thus favoured installation of the development in the lateral wings and bows in order to free up the central area, and to thereby underpin its status as a link between the different elements of the project.
The hall is organised in two strata : an upper stratum where an intermediary floor is created at the level of the existing overhead crane, containing all the office units, and a lower, more public stratum with a generous ceiling height, benefiting from a simple extension into the central nave.
The overall thermal organisation makes use of the closed volume of the hall as a buffer area which is unheated and ventilated in hot weather. All circulation areas are therefore semi-external spaces, organised around the nave, which functions like a large winter garden.
Quite apart from its spatial potential, the hall holds visual qualities which we feel it is essential to preserve (cofferdam concrete floor, metal framework, raised passageways). This project strategy is thereby enriched by the legibility and overlaying of the building’s different historical strata.
