Engineering school, Bordeaux

This programme closes the eastern front of a block inspired by the traditionnal Bastide, a typical, orthogonal group of buildings of different heights around a large square hosting a market or important public events. Our Bastide is conceived as a coherent whole which nevertheless allows the richness of the programme, the rhythms of the facades and the entrance signals singling out each building. The heart is inhabited by a large central which is enlivened by the outgrowths. The western part of the block is composed of housing by Leibar & Seigneurin and King Kong architects. At the base level, the coherence between the housing and the tertiary programme (higher education school) is obtained by creating a double height of the base and setting back the corresponding facades of the ground- and first floor. Located at the corner of the block, the office building reverses the general principle. The visible load-bearing facade is animated by the noble concrete modelling, the projecting cornices and a slight recess in the window frames. The roofs of the emergences are sloped and made of zinc, those of the lower volumes in the form of accessible or planted terraces. Throughout the project (design and construction), the flexible design allowed for a 100% school, 100% office programme or a combination based on vertical and horizontal division, as access to the 6,000 m² building is via three different halls.