Graal Architecture extends university refectory with green steel pavilion

Graal Architecture has renovated and extended a university refectory building in France, adding a lightweight rooftop pavilion of glass and green-painted steel overlooking the surrounding parkland.

The Parisian studio was commissioned to both update and extend the original 1993 prefabricated concrete refectory building, which sits within the Francois Mitterrand Park in Cergy.

The Crous University Refectory was extended and renovated by Graal Architecture

The project was completed for the Regional Centre for University and School Works, or CROUS — an organisation which provides burseries, accommodation, restaurants and cultural activities to students across France.

Despite its prominent position at the centre of the park, the original refectory building suffered from a poor connection to the outdoors and gloomy interiors.

The practice added green steel structural work to the building

Graal Architecture's approach involved both opening-up and highlighting the "intrinsic qualities" of the original building, while also adding a terrace and rooftop extension, called the Kiosk, which enjoys panoramic views over the park.

"Discreetly embedded in the topography, the original building faced a paradox," said the practice.

"While benefitting from a privileged position, the refectory suffered on the one hand from a lack of visibility and on the other from interior spaces that are little enhanced by its lack of links with the outside," it continued.

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Graal Architecture's Orly Festival Hall references residential and industrial buildings

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On the ground floor, sunk slightly into the ground, the "garden level" houses a large dining room overlooking the park to the north. Kitchens, bathrooms and offices wrap the southern edge of the building.

Removing a retaining wall, flattening the ground level and removing spandrels to expand the glazed areas all contributed to opening-up this ground floor space, characterised by the green-painted steelwork that frames the new windows.

"The interior is sequenced in three programmatic bands - relaxation, dining and kitchen areas - allowing the creation of a dynamic threshold between interior and exterior, notably through the new transparency of the facade," said the practice.

It is topped with a corrugated steel pavilion on the roof level

Inside, material choices were made to reflect the light around the space as much as possible, with a grey resin floor and glossy white tiles

Above, the Kiosk pavilion houses a new fast-food restaurant, built using a steel frame and finished in shiny corrugated sheet metal.

The interior features wooden and green-painted walls

"Designed as a light pavilion on a topographic mineral base, the Kiosk becomes a unifying element between the different parts of the refectory, allowing it to assert its presence while ensuring the architectural coherence of the whole," said the practice.

"Through a sober and economical design, the project demonstrates how work on an existing building can accompany the repositioning of an ordinary programme," it continued.

The building offers panoramic views of the park and gardens

Earlier this year, Graal Architecture completed a multipurpose events hall that mimics the look of typical gabled houses as well as the industrial sheds found nearby.

Other projects by the studio include a kindergarten extension in France made up of galvanised steel cabins.

The photography is byClement Guillaume.

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Graal Architecture's Orly Festival Hall references residential and industrial buildings

This multipurpose events hall designed by French studio Graal Architecture evokes typical gabled houses as well as the industrial sheds found near to its location beside Paris-Orly airport.

Orly Festival Hall is located on the edge of the airport complex to the south of Paris, and forms part of a suburban neighbourhood made up of residential and logistical buildings.

Graal Architecture has created a festival hall in France

Graal Architecture designed the festival hall as a pavilion consisting of four interconnected gabled volumes that resemble typical houses. Its flexible and modular design allows the building to be used for various events.

Corrugated and perforated metal cladding forms a rectilinear envelope around the pitched-roof volumes, lending it a more industrial appearance that recalls the nearby sheds and warehouses.

The building comprises four interconnected gabled volumes

"Halfway between a low-cost prefabricated industrial structure and an ordinary house, the building unfolds in two cubic volumes of the same dimensions, which attempt to move away from the typology of the shed to approach the domestic scale of the house," the architects explained.

The metal cladding extends beyond the height of the pitched roofs, creating a more visible volume within the suburban streetscape that changes in appearance when viewed from different distances and angles.

The volumes are wrapped by corrugated and perforated metal cladding

"Through its champagne colour, its undulations and perforations, the thermo-lacquered, corrugated iron cladding offers a changing and renewed image of the facility through the play of reflections and transparency," Graal Architecture added.

"Depending on the light, the distance and the viewpoint, which is multiple on this angled plot, the building creates a real kinetic effect."

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The building is separated into two conjoined blocks that are shifted slightly in plan to fit the irregularly shaped plot. The space in the offset area forms an entrance plaza sheltered from the noisy airport.

A block of service areas including the entrances, toilets, offices and technical spaces are arranged along the northern edge of the building so they are direct contact with the car park and a small concrete plaza.

It has a champagne-hued colour

Three entrances along the building's length provide access to different parts of the hall, allowing each space to function independently and enhancing the facility's flexibility.

The building was constructed using a timber frame that is visible inside the hall and is complemented by the exposed timber walls and structural roof panels.

The prefabricated framework is visible inside the hall

The prefabricated framework supports a series of deep beams that span the hall from front to back. Tracks incorporated into the beams allow movable walls to be used to partition the interior into two or three rooms.

The four roof ridges help to visually separate the open, flexible space into smaller bays while also aiding its acoustic properties. Each bay features large windows on its southern facade that look out towards the airport.

Skylights slot into the roof's ridge

Lighting and acoustic baffles that follow the folds of the roof help to break up the overall scale of the internal space. Skylights slotted into the roof's ridge cast natural light onto the timber beams and the concrete floor below.

Graal Architecture was founded by Carlo Grispello and Nadine Lebeau. The firm has previously designed an energy-efficient and economical facility for small children that was longlisted in the civic building category of Dezeen Awards 2021, and a sports hall for a nursery in western Paris comprising three corrugated zinc and galvanised steel cabins.

The photography is byClément Guillaume.

The post Graal Architecture's Orly Festival Hall references residential and industrial buildings appeared first on Dezeen.

#all #architecture #publicandleisure #france #modulararchitecture #corrugatedmetal #perforatedmetalfacades #perforatedmetal #graalarchitecture