courtesy Mateo architects & Adrià Goula

courtesy Mateo architects & Adrià Goula

When addressing this project for an office building, we started off by thinking about the entire city block as a series of buildings with spaces between them to introduce light and air into the empty space. In this way we began to see the building as a mass that formed Rue Emile Zola, like a complex volume. We had some prior experience with this type of building in terms of dimensions, depth, and so on, that went almost automatically into the drawings and models. I always start this way, with a very abstract volume as a base.

courtesy Mateo architects & Adrià Goula

The history and the setting of the building also have to be taken into account. In this case, we were looking at the former Renault plant, which immediately brought to mind old stories of May 1968 and J.-L. Godard's film Éloge de l'amour that was made there shortly before the factory was demolished. However, when we visited the site, what we found was a huge, beautiful, expectant empty space, which involved constructing a new part of the city. As an architect, I like that sensation of emptiness waiting to be filled and taking on the responsibility of imposing clarity.

+ Project facts

Typology: Office Building
Project: 2006-2008
Construction: 2008-2010
Site: Rue Émile Zola. District of Île-Seguin Rives de Seine. Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris (France)
Surface: 17.300 m²
Photo: Adrià Goula

+ All images courtesy Mateo architects & Adrià Goula

This project was developed for the Work in Progress’12 contest, for selecting the best proposals for experimental exhibition modules at the architecture and design event Projecto Casa’12. The main intent was to explore the thermo formable property of Corian ©.

courtesy A2OFFICE | photo by Alexandra Marques

The piece was not intended to be narrative in its intended function, but rather, and in contrast, be a creative basis allowing the observer to be more interested in the plastic potential of the material.

courtesy A2OFFICE | photo by Alexandra Marques

Such as a Duchamp readymade, if we remove the functional significance, one gains a certain plastic essence piece completely autonomous that tends to assert itself. The aim was not just to give an answer, but put the viewer asking the question!

courtesy A2OFFICE

+ Project facts

A2OFFICE ®
Títle: 5-OC.STRIPES | EXPERIMENTAL EXHIBITION MODULE
Project Manager: Alberto Dias Ribeiro
Photography: Alexandra Marques
Year: 2012
Location: Exponor, Matosinhos, Portugal
Construction: Materfut, S.A.

+ All images & drawings courtesy A2OFFICE | photo by Alexandra Marques