To view the content, please enable marketing cookies by clicking on the button below.
Cookie settings
Architect Agency
OECO Architectes
Metal Builder
SPM
Product Solutions used
GEODE façades, AMBIAL XL folding door, SOLEAL windows, sliders and doors.
Photographer
Kevin Dolmaire
“It has been decided to award a special mention to this project for its smart mass and interesting architecture developed as an experiment. With an attractive skin and a design that represents the youth of its creators.”
Jury comments
The Guy Môquet youth center features 1700 m² including a leisure centre, a dance studio and collective housing for associations visiting the area or artists in residence, for example. Cabestany town council's ambition was to create an attractive building to host young children and teenagers during school holidays. The different entities had to be connected but also needed to function independently.
OECO ARCHITECTES agency has imagined a volumetry which superimposes the programmes thanks to half-levels visible from the central atrium. Easily recognizable by its multiple concrete facets, without being too demonstrative, this structural and monolithic "stylish rock" is the new landmark of the city entrance, which has been somewhat neglected until now.
Multiple openings let natural light in, according to needs and uses.
-The dance hall benefits from northern light through a GEODE curtain wall more than 6 m wide and 3 m high. Thin aluminium profiles split this large frame into three, like a triptych praising the surrounding landscape. An XXL AMBIAL folding door, with almost identical dimensions, echoes this glass wall. Children and teachers can enjoy the terrace, which opens completely as soon as the first rays of sunshine appear.
-The leisure centre is spread over the three lower half levels. It is an open space around a hall, which can be easily rearranged according to the activities with the help of removable partitions. It is fitted with large 3.20 m high SOLEAL fixed units/doors.
The accommodation on the ground and third floors has 6 dormitories with SOLEAL tilt-and-turn windows to facilitate ventilation. The common area has an 11m wide glazed unit, consisting of two large sliding windows, fixed frames and a SOLEAL door. It allows the occupants to enjoy the terrace on the top level, which overlooks and contemplates the Canigou mountain in the distance.
OECO Architects agency chose TECHNAL aluminium joinery because of its slim mass views, which blend in with the concrete used for the envelope. Their natural anodised aluminium appearance blends delicately with the beige concrete colour and the wooden underside. Materials are raw, robust and sustainable.
