Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center

Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista

FOYER ASTURAL CHEVRENS EDUCATION CENTER

Lacroix Chessex

ARCHITECTS
Lacroix Chessex

STATE
Switzerland

LOCATION
Anières, Switzerland

CATEGORY
Hospitality Architecture

YEAR
2020

AREA
1260 m²

Text description provided by architect.

Established in the commune of Anières in 1957, the Centre de Chevrens aims to welcome and meet the educational needs of adolescents aged between 14 and 18 years old placed in boarding schools.

Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista

At the entrance to the village of Chevrens, the new buildings of the Centre revere the guidelines of the existing fabric by reinforcing, in particular, the single-front structure of the village-street with an irregular succession of courses and narrowings.

In this image, the layout of the project delimits a complex built around a courtyard open to the road and thus marks the transition between the countryside and the built environment.

Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista

Around the courtyard, two distinct volumes share the main functions of the institution. A double building, with one administrative level and two residential levels, serves as a living space for young people and supervisory staff.

The second volume, closer to the road and lower than the other, is devoted to training. Although defined as a unit, the two volumes are deliberately distinguished from each other in order to identify them by their uses: a place to live and a place to work.

Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista

The façades of the buildings are inspired by the place.

While those of the hamlet's dwellings are mainly in masonry, those of the large farms located at the entrances and exits of Chevrens and the neighbouring villages are in the traditional wooden cladding.

Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista

The project mixes these two principles by proposing to use traditional wooden facades as formwork bases for reinforced concrete facades. While all rough concrete negotiates with the issue of the formwork footprint, here this phenomenon is pushed to its extreme so that the formwork takes on the appearance of the formwork.

At first glance, these are wooden rural dwellers, but as you get closer you discover that the whole thing is made of concrete.

Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista

This transfer from traditional construction principles to formwork and architectural form reminds us of the magic of a fossilised plant, suggesting that the intervention has always been part of the Chevrens landscape.


Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
© Olivier di Giambattista


Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Plan - Ground floor
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Plan - 1st floor
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Plan - 2nd floor
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Plan - Roof


Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Elevation 01
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Elevation 02
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Elevation 03
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Situation


Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Section 01
Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Section 02


Foyer Astural Chevrens Education Center
Detail