PROJECT REPORT: MIXED USE SCHEMES 47


Re-engineering the site meant breaking down the internal arrangement to enable new spaces to be inserted, and “hidden ones” like the formerly below-ground library to be revealed. Winy Maas describes the resulting composition: “It created a kind of explosion of buildings that combines large and small scale, existing and new programmes, where everything mixes and opens up to the city with lobbies and windows of varying scales.”


The new design somewhat reinvents the layout and floorplates of the original 1970s design, however the architects have staged a valiant attempt to reuse the concrete superstructure wherever possible, “stitching the old floor plates into the new plans.” And to build the new social housing block the architects chose the most sustainable new build solution possible; CLT timber frame. It is located at the heart of the plan, between the hotel tower and the office block of Le Héron to the north. The social housing element of the brief was added once the client approached the


ADF MAY 2023


city with its final proposal, which doubled the size of the office and retail space. The city required further social value to be added in, which resulted in housing and a kindergarten. “It was beneficial to the project, making it more diverse,” says des Courtis. The apartments are enhanced by having their interiors in exposed timber, giving them a distinctive appearance. The hotel part to the side of the site includes a 12-metre-high ballroom/events space which is intended to be very flexible to include functions such as car showcases; it can be divided into five smaller spaces. In terms of the 12,000 m2 of office


spaces, they were also made to be highly flexible so that a single tenant could take a whole floor, or each floor could have several tenants. “The organisation functions well on different scales,” adds des Courtis, explaining that the building needs to support both fixed office spaces and highly flexible open floor plates.


The architects decided to move the hotel lobby from the ground to the second floor,


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FACING PAGE


A huge curtain tackles shading in one of the office portion’s meeting spaces


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