Mobile architectural office renews the Albert Schweitzer community center, providing a more dynamic image. The complex has a multimedia library, an association center, an administrative center, a medical and psychological health center and a children's space.
Mobile architectural office renewed access to the facilities with three different entrances, some linked by a large patio. The project includes several green areas that make the installation no longer hidden between neighboring buildings, but project a positive image.
 

Description of project by Mobile architectural office

The town of Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et-Marne) is organised around three main interlinking spaces: the Lys plain, the historical town centre and the park surrounding the Abbey. The Albert Schweitzer community centre is located in the heart of the Lys plain, in a neighbourhood made up of several thousand housing units built in the 1970s and known, at the time, as an "urban centre".

Built at the foot of two of the highest tower blocks, in front of the 8th May 1945 square, the facility is the centrepiece of the neighbourhood and plays a vital urban and landscaping rôle within it. However, despite being an important community space and a defining element of the townscape, it was never perceived as an inviting public space. The facades, concealed behind unkempt vegetation and metal trellised panelling which significantly reduced any incoming light to the building, were closed off and not visible from public space.

The challenge of refurbishing/expanding the Albert Schweitzer community centre, as well as dealing with its immediate surroundings, was to provide the neighbourhood with a dynamic image of its own renewal.

The Albert Schweitzer community centre has a multimedia library, an associations’ hub, an administrative hub as well as a medical and psychological health centre (with a maternal and child protection unit) to which an early childhood space has been added. In order to modernize the whole block, the architects decided to renovate access to the facility by creating three distinct entrances. The entrances to the multimedia library and the associations’ hub are now linked together by a big forecourt, that runs alongside the 8th of May Square. The project also includes a big communal outside seating area, a leisure garden, an urban gardening space and an orchard maintained by the associations’ hub. The facility is no longer hidden among the neighbouring buildings, now it projects a positive image.

The facades are adorned with a glass and metal skin – brushed stainless steel and rusted metal – that winds around the building like a ribbon. The unity of the materials gives the whole a strong presence that fits in harmoniously with the urban and landscaping context all the while improving the building’s thermal performance.

This homogeneous ribbon is highlighted by and seen through plants in the foreground spread out around the whole block which provide onlookers with several ways of taking in the facility depending on the positioning, the light at different times of day or seasons, the geography of the site and the viewpoints.

The replacement of ground-cover plants by an accessible lawn dotted with high stem trees frames the views and contributes to opening up the Albert Schweitzer community centre to the rest of the town. 

Read more
Read less

More information

Label
Architects
Text
Mobile architectural office. Head architect.- Fabien Brissaud. Architect.- Aurélien Ferry, Marine de Froberville.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Collaborators
Text
Landscaper.- Rémi Algis. CETAB.- Thierry Langé (IDF agency manager), Benjamin Leclercq (Engineering project manager), Laurent Trougnac (Electrical engineer), Etienne Bories (Building services engineer), Thomas Monneris (Head of the infrastructure department).
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Client
Text
Ville de Dammarie-les-Lys.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Contractors
Text
OSB, FPB Simeoni, Couvretoit, Est Alu, Millet, Peintisol, UTB, Eiffage Energie, TP Goulard, Chadel, La CST.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Manufacturers
Text
Saint Gobain, Wicona, Kawneer curtain wall, Soprema, Placo Saint Gobain, TMN industrie, Glaströsch.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Mobile architectural office created in 2012, by fabien brissaud, has been recognized and awarded by several international competitions and laureate of many competitions in France. our workshop seeks to achieve a quality architecture, contemporary and timeless both in direct connection with our theoretical research on architecture, society and our concern on the establishment of a particular constructive device.

Mao develops each project "in situ", studying and drawing from the existing architecture to create a project respectful of its environment. our work is based on a contextual approach that is not satisfied with a stereotyped response. each territory has its history, its geography, its materiality and its constraints. our work is based on the concept of "critical reuse", which involves always starting from the existing state in order to design a contemporary project in line with the environment. it is a question of introducing into the project approach a material part like the history, the cartography, the heritage, the economy, the human and the insertion acquired during the years and another immaterial part as the notions scale, limit, mobility and location.

In today's globalized and generic world, we strive to create architectures specific to each territory. the creed of the agency is not only to respond to an order but is, first and foremost, to re-question the issue for each project through a strategic discussion with project stakeholders and more broadly the territory.
Read more
Published on: October 12, 2019
Cite: "Renovation of Albert Schweitzer Community Center by mobile architectural office" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/renovation-albert-schweitzer-community-center-mobile-architectural-office> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...