The group, which integrates the international studio IDOM, is the winner of the competition and the ones in charge of designing the rehabilitation and expansion of the Archives of the department of the Hautes-Pyrenees in the small town of Tarbes in the Occitania region of southern France.

The project can be differentiated into two parts, the rehabilitation of the original building together with the extension that is added surrounding the pre-existing building where it seeks to integrate and relate to both the initial construction and the original neighborhood.
The IDOM proposal that will be inaugurated in early 2024 tries to respect as much as possible the traditional identity of the project and the urban environment with a great historical character where it is located. The extension project knows how to interpret the original language and evolve it with a more contemporary personality reflected in the treatment of light and material.

With a symmetrical composition and a logic very marked by the traditional building, the project does not abandon that idea, it adapts to it and surrounds it, where the use of white color and the use of wood on the opaque fronts allows differentiating both parts of the building without that the identity of the whole is lost and that it can be read as a homogeneous piece.
 

Description of project by IDOM

The proposal recovers as much as possible of the interesting pre-existing building, adding an extension that aims to maintain the spirit of the original, endowing the whole with an even more public and representative vocation.

The Department of Hautes-Pyrenees called a public tender on December 2019 for the drafting of the project and the construction management of the Archive facility of the Department of Hautes-Pyrenees, with the requirement to maintain the central body of the existing historic building, l’École Normale de filles, and the possibility pedestrians crossing through, as they currently do at each to the sides.

IDOM's winning proposal maintains the central body of the existing building, as required by the specifications, in addition to the two main lateral bodies, in order to respect, as much as possible, its original image, owned, as it were, by the collective unconscious of the city of Tarbes.

The rehabilitation of the pre-existing building will accommodate uses such as the reception area, an assembly and exhibition hall, offices and a consultation and reading room. Given the characteristics of these uses, high levels of structural resistance are not required in the building.

Considering the same criteria with respect to the original building, the new extension building is being designed, which will house the part of the archive program. The design will require high demand levels in relation to the structure and in terms of temperature and humidity conditions.

A geometry similar to the pre-existing one is proposed, with a more contemporary image, which highlights what is currently the rear façade, keeping materials from the original building, such as the slate roofs, and adding both to the building to be rehabilitated as well as the new construction. The wood being used is a material that will give greater relevance and warmth to the whole.

With respect to the objective of contributing value to the public space, in addition to the uses of the building itself, a plaza is being designed, maintaining the existing large trees, which break up the current boundary between the property and the street, defined by a fence and a gate that becomes the central motif of the plaza, as a gesture to the historical memory of the building. Likewise, the spaces and uses of the building are organized and distributed so that the public can pass through it, thus acting as an element of connection and not of urban separation while making the building more known to a larger number of citizens.

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Architects
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Idom
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Design team
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Lead architects.- Iñaki Garai, Inés López, Gohar Manrique. Architects.- Cristina Jodar, José Manuel Pando, Pablo Blanco. Project manager.- Inés López.
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Collaborators
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Local architect.- Duffau & Associé. Project management.- Inés López. Costs.- Vernet ECO.- Structure.- Alberto Ayensa, Miguel Angel Valverde. Air conditioning.- Jon Zubiaurre, Lucas Legay. Lighting.- Miguel García. Electricity.- Jon Zubiaurre, Lucas Legay. Acoustic.- Angela Lorenzo. Commissioning.- ALTEREA. Renderings.- Roberto Fernández de Gamboa, Alfonso Alvarez. Construction management.- Inés López. Planning of lots on site.- Joël Bassi.
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Client
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Area
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Edification.- 10,392sqm. Outside.- 3698sqm.
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Dates
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Contest.- 2019. Construction.- 2024.
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Location
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Tarbes, Occitania, France.
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Renderings
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Roberto Fernández de Gamboa, Alfonso Álvarez. 
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Iñaki Garai Zabala. An architectural graduate from the University of Navarra, Iñaki Garai Zabala joined IDOM in 1993 ((within his firm ACXT Architects until 2015, when it disappeared and the Architecture team would use the name IDOM), and became a partner of the firm in 2003. Now the Director of Architecture in Bilbao, he is responsible for the northern part of Spain, France, Colombia and Asia.

His work has been published in different architecture publications and books, such as Detail, Arketipo, Plataforma Arquitectura, Arquitectura Viva, ArchDaily, Urbanism & Architecture (China) Architektur + Wettbewerbe (Germany), Office et Culture (France), Eco Living (Switzerland), Showhouse (United Kingdom) ...

He has spoken extensively on the work of IDOM and other topics related to his professional experience in national and international arenas: Instituto Cervantes in London, Universities in Spain and Mexico, or the IASP Congress in Beijing.

He has received professional recognition through awards and invitations to participate in events and exhibitions such as; the Building Exhibition the Basque Country, Basque Government, 2018; Biennial Prize for Architecture of São Paulo IX, Brazil in 2011; Award in the 6th edition of the Architecture Awards of the Society of Architects of China in 2011; the City Prize, AVNAU Urbanism and Ecology in 2009; Selected for the Ministry of Housing Exhibition “Young Architects of Spain” in 2008; Finalist in the COAVN Awards in 2001 and 2007; or selected for the FAD awards in 2001.

His most outstanding and award-winning works include the General Services Building in Erandio, the Bakio Sports Center, various social housing developments and the CEIBS Business School in Beijing, China. He is currently developing several projects in France that have been awarded through public competitions.

 

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Inés López Taberna is architect from the University of Navarre specialized in town planning.She works at IDOM since 1997 and she is a member since 2008. Her work as an architect has been extensive in the field of council housing, for both private and public developers. Particularly outstanding are the 88 and 65 council dwellings in Zabalgana and the 72 and 104 in Elejalde and Borinbizkarra.

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