1/04/2011

Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Etienne by Manuelle Gautrand

After inaugurating The Musée d'art moderne Lille Métropole (Villeneuve d'Ascq), French architect Manuelle Gautrand has successfully inaugurated the Cité des affaires (Financial District) of Saint-Étienne. This cubic building partly yellow and partly perforated of glass will host offices for the collectivités territoriales (or Polity) of Saint-Étienne métropole and administrations of the public services of the city.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, photography © Philippe Ruault. Originally appeared on actu-architecture.

The project aims at building up the quartier d'affaires (financial district) of the city of Saint-Étienne.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, photography © Philippe Ruault. Originally appeared on actu-architecture.

This building is an energy efficient block implemented in the development area of Saint-Étienne. Façade is conceived in a dual manner. The first way concerns the three exterior façades which are delimited by transparent openings. The second one, the interior of doors, is made of concrete painted in yellow.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District) of Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture

Openings of this yellow façade have been arranged randomly.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, photography © Philippe Ruault. Originally appeared on actu-architecture


The façade treatment aims at bringing out this building. The yellow color allows a reflection of a golden light on the façade inside the narrow courtyard.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture. Originally appeared on actu-achitecture

Sustainability is optimized by the façade which principle is based on the complementarity of a glass-made skin and a mineral skin.
Cité des Affaires (Financial district), Saint-Étienne — Model, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture. Originally appeared on actu-architecture

Manuelle Gautrand's concern about HQE (for Haute qualité environmental of high environmental quality standard for service industry buildings) is reached with the energy conservation of the façades in accordance with the various geographic and urban orientations of the project. All efficiency requirements in terms of materials, energy, isolation have been reached.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture

Another particularity of this project concerns the 16 mm insulated glass mixed with air and argon used for the thermal insulation. Argon is known to have low thermal conductivity. Such as krypton and xenon, argon permits to increase the insulating performance and have a higher density compared to air but have higher costs. Yet argon is less expensive than krypton and xenon. This is why it is commonly used in insulated glazing.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture

Thanks to the alternating glass-made and not translucent openings, thermo-transmittance coefficient Ucw for this curtain wall can reach 1,5W/m2K.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, photography © Vincent Fillon. Originally appeared on actu-architecture

The building is pronounced by two cantilevers of 19 and 25 meters made of steel frame. From the street, it is possible to see the organisation of the building and its two cantilevers and the relation of the yellow concrete façade and the curtain wall.
Cité des Affaires (Financial District), Saint-Étienne, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Saint-Étienne, France, © Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, photography © Philippe Ruault. Originally appeared on actu-architecture


Project Data
Project: Cité des Affaires of Saint-Étienne (Saint-Étienne's financial districts)
Program: offices
Architects: Manuel Gautrand Architecture
Location: îlot Grüner, SAC Châteaucreux, Saint-Étienne
Structural Engineer : Khephren
FAR: 25,000 sq. m.
Construction start: 2008
Completion year: 2010
credits
Drawings, plans courtesy Manuelle Gautrand Architecture
Photographs all courtesy respectively © Philippe Ruault and © Vincent Fillon
Photographs, plans, drawings, when mentioned, originally appeared on actu-architecture

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