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CONVERSION OF AN OFFICE BUILDING INTO A SCHOOL
Our agency was selected by SwissLife to completely refurbish and restructure an office building in Nanterre. The new complex is now home to students from the Digital College and Metaverse College, previously housed in the Collège de Paris premises at La Grande Arche.
This project demonstrates our know-how and the agency's expertise in the transformation of use and reversibility of buildings. This is a priority issue at a time when land sobriety is a key objective.
Digital College and Metaverse College students discovered their new school premises at the start of the new academic year in January. Located in Nanterre, in a former office building that had been vacant for two years, the new 3,500 m2, six-storey building was completely restructured by the A26 architectural firm.
From offices to "Dojo
The transformation of the offices first required an application for authorization to become an Établissement Recevant du Public (ERP), issued by Nanterre town hall. The architectural firm then reconfigured the existing volumes and designed new shared spaces (café, sports hall, planted and landscaped terraces, etc.). Last but not least, clearances were created to manage student flows (staircases, emergency exits, etc.). In addition to being necessary for the change of use of the site, these interventions require specific know-how to take into account all the needs of the new users.
"This type of project calls for solid experience, since it involves integrating not only architectural considerations, but also urban planning, regulatory, economic, educational and other factors", explains Carole Houssin, architect. "This project required long phases of preliminary work, such as the study of mobility in the neighborhood, the layout of the staircases, which we had to resize in a tight hopper, and the ventilation systems. We had to work in spaces where the school will have to accommodate an average of 3 times more people per square metre, which is no mean feat".
As well as the structure and spaces, the site has also been refurbished.
From the furniture to the choice of materials and coverings, not to mention the colors used, we worked closely with the Digital College teams to immerse the public in a Japanese-style universe. Initially renamed "La Fabrique", the new building complex was given the name "Le Dojo" to reflect the atmosphere and design of the site.
A model of land sobriety
In recent years, the agency has developed valuable expertise and know-how in building reversibility and transforming uses, driven by a particular context. " The objectives of preserving natural soils, the scarcity of land and new working models are all contributing to a change in the way we approach our profession", says Marc Seifert, President of the agency. "The Zero Net Artificialization law is a new constraint that raises questions about the many issues we all know about, and which architects must seize as an opportunity. But we didn't wait for this law to come into force to monitor our land consumption, and reversibility has logically been one of our main objectives for several years now. We have all the in-house skills needed to carry out these operations from start to finish, which translates into around ten buildings converted by the agency every year".
