Rehabilitation & extension of Les Sablons Social Centre

Our intervention permits a new and refurbished public facility to exist on a site with unfavourable mass ratios, highlighting its distinctive signature and hospitable exterior spaces.

This operation for the refurbishment & extension of the Les Sablons Social Centre forms part of the overall development project for the Les Sablons Urban Development Zone. The challenge has been to secure the existence of this small and simple single-storey building on a site which is surrounded by residential buildings, all with at least five storeys, some with up to seven storeys, including an attic. Particular attention has been paid to the treatment of roofs, as these constitute a genuine fifth façade which is visible from the surrounding residences.

Spaces built as an extension of existing buildings are of timber construction. Structural timber with CLT panels for walls and roofs, and architectural timber for cladding.

Technical solutions adopted have allowed works to proceed at speed, generating only limited nuisance for the neighbourhood. It has also been possible to dispense with intermediate load-bearing structures. This absence of beams in the new structures provides genuine convenience of use for the small spaces involved in this project, and permits the consideration of potential for the straightforward redevelopment of the premises in the long term.

The chosen cladding is vertically-grooved larch, which suggests the image of open-joint cladding while delivering all the benefits associated with the installation and servicing of traditional cladding.

Large-scale metal fittings provide irregularities in the timber-built spaces. Treated as an overall volume of steel and glass, their composition features an alternation of glazing and metal cladding, with the interplay of different exposed facings.