Architects:NIEZ LARRAUFIE ARCHITECTES ASSOCIES - NL.AA

Area:517m²

Year:2022

Photographs:Jean-François TREMEGE

Lead Architects:Arthur Niez + Guillaume LARRAUFIE

Engineering & Consulting > Other:ODETEC

City:Donzenac

Country:France

Text description provided by the architects. Donzenac landscape is strongly characterized by its medieval village perched on a hill overlooking the Maumont valley. The village and the bell tower are visible from the site dedicated to the new fire station and overlook the lowland mainly composed of low-quality constructions in the foreground and resplendent forests in the background. The site is located in the plain, near the watercourse whose floods frequently inundate the place.

The first important choice on this project was to define a location for a single volume allowing the preservation of the two magnificent oak trees on the plot and clearing the truck maneuvering spaces while benefiting from the shade cast by the two trees.

We created access to the building via a secondary road to secure vehicle traffic. Thus, the project turns its back on the public domain. Therefore, while clearing the necessary height for truck parking, we wanted to propose a low façade along the road axis to emphasize the vegetal landscape and the village perched on the hill.

The site is characterized by a continuous gentle slope and a height difference of about 2 meters from the public domain. The project takes advantage of this height difference to bury itself halfway on the East facade. This layout is economical and virtuous, the architectural and urban choice is put to use for significant energy savings using ground inertia.

Furthermore, the building compresses the program into a single and compact volume to minimize the built footprint, and the impermeable surface, and to reduce construction costs.

By positioning itself as a visual mask, the building creates a sense of privacy between the village entrance road and the maneuvering and outdoor living spaces of the firefighters.

The construction consists of a unique concrete slab in both the garage and the offices. The two prefabricated concrete gables, whose angle is dictated by the parcel boundaries, contain a trussed Douglas wood frame that shapes the wide canopy.

The east facade features a sunshade made of vertical wooden slats in front of thick polycarbonate. This system protects the facade from the morning sun, and enlivens the view of the facility from the road axis, especially when the station is occupied at night. This low facade, which emphasizes the landscape, becomes the new image of the city entrance.

The west facade offers a design of metal cladding and glass. It aims to be as generous as possible, offering the offices views of the landscape and providing the vehicle garage with a significant amount of natural light while limiting views from the outside. The building takes advantage of the east-west orientation to provide significant and transverse natural light to all spaces. It widely opens the living spaces to the west towards the landscape. A large canopy is created to protect not only the glass facades but also the outdoor life of the fire station.

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