ARX

This project was selected in an international invited competition launched by IMOCOM in July 2006, open to 16 design teams. The developer had a clear set of intentions: a distinctive, contemporary identity, a strong relationship with the views (river and city), a bioclimatic design and the broadcasting of audiovisual content to the exterior. We started from the premise that its contemporary character would result from a natural integration and synthesis of these various aims, with the engineering disciplines playing an active role in defining the architecture.

The building was conceived as an opaque, black, protective orthogonal shell that creates a strong sense of interiority and privacy. The necessary transparencies were cut into the corners, seeking, in "a single gesture", to achieve the best relationship with the views and adequate protection from solar gain inside the building. To meet the need to broadcast audiovisual content, while avoiding the simple application of an audiovisual screen to the façade, we developed a façade that incorporates LED strips within the joints of the cladding.

The body of the building has a mutable and ambiguous character. It transforms according to the nature of the content being displayed. There is also a concept of "restoring nature": the sum of the green areas integrated into the building is equal to the total area of the plot. The excavations at the corners of the black shell are designed as landscape fictions: fictions of "reed-fringed lakes" on the river side and of "gardens" on the opposite side, which filter the relationships between interior and exterior and create a strong depth of visual fields. At dusk, these fictions take on an unexpected presence. In an increasingly artificial urban context, they shimmer against the black background like "floating" pockets of nature.