Delivered in 2019 on a restricted plot of the ZAC Odysseum
in Montpellier (34), this largely glazed office building with Wicona joinery was designed in the shape of a shell.
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Started in 1998, the urban development of Odysseum – district of
Port Marianne – in Montpellier (34) has several architectural gems.
In 2011, the land available in the ZAC was reduced to a few plots of modest size. The IDEC group, via its subsidiaries Faubourg Promotion
and the general contractor Sequabat, took up the challenge of constructing an office building of 3,000 m² on approximately 1,000 m². Located at the entrance to the development zone between the road and the tramway, it presented strong constraints. Eight years later (12 months of construction), the building was delivered by the Zuo agency.
The problem
The land forms a curved triangle on one of its sides. The surface at
The ground towards the south-eastern point had to remain free to preserve access to a fire defense pipeline. On the north-west side, the constraint
was in height because of the passage of a high tension line, deposited since. The building was designed by architect Yves Simon
in a glazed hull on three unhooked levels. Its asymmetrically hollowed out geometry follows the entire terrain. On its point, a cantilever of 17 meters between R + 2 and R + 3 projects above the pipeline; the other angle is truncated to an R + 1. The whole is wrapped around a curved patio.
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The proposed solution
The concrete structure of the building is hidden behind the glazed and reflective facade implemented by the aluminum joinery company Grégoire 12, using Wicona solutions in aluminum profiles. In order to obtain
a curved facade as smooth as possible, work was necessary to develop the right layouts. “Initially, we had planned more openings, but the question turned out to be complex in
terms of budget. We have made sure that each tenant benefits from at least one per office and that summer comfort is ensured by the glazing and the possibility of installing interior blinds ”, explains Yves Simon.
A particular point is the cantilever, the concrete structure of which is suspended from two steel guy ropes, using a technique inspired by that
bridges. Studies were carried out by Séquabat with the BET Verdier in particular to make the expansion of the concrete coincide with the standards for installing the curtain wall.
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The final achievement
The Wicona Mecano 52 curtain wall (1,650 m²) adorns the building’s forms in a single movement. The impression of smooth continuity of the curves is obtained by a facetization of a relative narrowness with a screen width 1,100 mm and by a weakness of the angles of less than 10 degrees.
Discretion is essential with the use of flat pressure hoods on the vertical gray profiles (7016) and Wicline 65 inserts with hidden opening. On the other hand, the horizontals are underlined, drawing the fluid shapes of the envelope with protruding pressure hoods on light gray profiles (7035) and Emalit enamelled glass bands of
height 1000 mm in opaque parts. In the center, the open-air patio is equipped with 12 joinery sets of Wicline 65 strip windows with visible opening. “The three-month deadline for closing the facades was
short. It was necessary to be efficient on a site in the middle of the city, without possibility
storage, with discomfort caused by the catheters of the
tram. We carried out the installation by level with an optimized construction site procurement methodology ”, confides David Grégoire, manager of Grégoire 12.
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