Marc Mimram Architecture Ingénierie

Strasbourg School Of Architecture

Strasbourg School Of Architecture
© Julien Lanoo

STRASBOURG SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

Marc Mimram

ARCHITECTS
Marc Mimram

CATEGORY
Educational Architecture, University

LOCATION
Strasbourg, France

AREA
4500.0 m²

PHOTOGRAPHS
Julien Lanoo

YEAR
2014

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Marc Mimram

ACOUSTIC ENGINEER
PEUTZ & Associés

CONTRACTOR
Leon Grosse

Text description provided by architect.

The teaching spaces of La Fabrique are projected into the streetscape, encouraging students to engage with the building’s context and allowing the city to permeate the ribbed veil of the façade.

Strasbourg School Of Architecture
© Julien Lanoo
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
© Julien Lanoo

The transparent plinth gives the feeling that a gravitational force has pulled the building upwards leaving it to rest on stiletto heels, allowing the city in underneath.

The building’s massing consists of two-storey blocks stacked on top of each other.

The lower block cantilevers over the transparent, ground floor plinth, while the uppermost block steps back, providing the maximum volume within the constraints set by the planning regulations.

Strasbourg School Of Architecture
© Julien Lanoo
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
© Julien Lanoo

The blocks are unified by the common envelope, a semi-transparent aluminium skin that cloaks the glazed “boxes.”

A metal curtain glides between large bay windows to frame views across the city, its homes and its cathedral.

Strasbourg School Of Architecture
© Julien Lanoo
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
© Julien Lanoo

By day, the building reflects the changing light as the sun moves around the façade; by night, inside and outside are reversed, revealing the building’s skeleton and morphing between transparent and opaque.

Marc Mimram, Founding Director of the practice said: “The central location presented a rare opportunity for an architecture school to engage in a dialogue between the city and the study of architecture. The relationship between structure and envelope has been the foundation of architectural practice since the Gothic age, and since the 19th century this has been beautifully expressed through metal structures. Today, there can be a tendency to enclose, thicken and solidify, to separate ourselves from the environment and the natural elements. La Fabrique expresses a renewed ambition to resist this trend and to open the building towards the city and the urban skylines.”

The new school was above all designed as a tool for its students, a means to experience the study of architecture and to provide shared spaces in which to interact, collaborate and discover.

The building’s name, La Fabrique, refers to the history of the site, but also echoes the study of architecture: the construction of knowledge and the knowledge of construction.

Strasbourg School Of Architecture
© Julien Lanoo


Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Basement Floor Plan
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Ground Floor Plan
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
First Floor Plan
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Second Floor Plan
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Third Floor Plan
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Fourth Floor Plan
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Fifth Floor Plan
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Sixth Floor Plan
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Roof Plan


Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Section 1
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Section 2
Strasbourg School Of Architecture
Diagram

Marc Mimram Architecture Ingénierie
T +33 1 43449119 F +33 1 43441909
Marc Mimram Architecture Ingénierie
21 Rue de la Fontaine au Roi, 75011 Paris, France