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The entry point for this project was our discovery of its gorgeous and complex site. The context of the community hall is the perfect example of our contemporary condition and our relationship with the environment where nothing is ‘natural’ anymore and yet where every human action must take into account what is already there and surpasses us. The hall was to be lodged between this completely artificial road, that nicely dances along the topography of the site, and, down the slope, a small river, whose cyclic expansion influences the human made agricultural landscape which surrounds the hills.
Both a single objects disposed in the high grass, and a staple on the road infrastructure, the hall was designed with this duality in mind : a complex addition to an already complex site.
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The community center aims to present both a domestic and rural scale, while at the same time offering a central facility with which all residents of the small but fragmented town of Beynes, can identify, thereby reinforcing their sense of belonging to this dispersed territory. Located alongside the departmental road serving the valley, the building overlooks an agricultural wasteland created by the same road, the railway line below and an old local road, to which the building must logically connect.
A hybrid formed from an iconic "roadside" architecture and a regionalist reimagination of the agricultural barn, the hall emerges from the ground as a softly materialized mineral volume, covered by a two-faceted, slender gable roof that cuts into the landscape.
The facility is designed around three basic bioclimatic principles: the installation of an efficient canadian well to cool or heat incoming air, the management of thermal inertia through the mass of the concrete and roof overhangs to protect against direct sunlight in summer. Sharply defined by the surrounding infrastructure, the site's layout was designed to acknowledge its topographical and hydrological characteristics. To minimize the damage to local flora and fauna, while reducing the economic impact of the development, the simple widening of the local road allowed the building's base to be installed, along with a linear parking area planted with trees, without creating large pockets, in keeping with the valley's landscape
The building is composed of three architectural elements whose roles and identification are made clear by the change of materiality. The mass-coloured concrete base anchors the architectural object in its site. Exceeding the simple function of a wall and protective volume, the plinth expands like a base, extending into a terrace opening to the distant landscape. The wooden roof framework sits on the top of this plinth, outlining the object and its attachment to the sky. This additional layer is made legible by the clear division between the concrete of the base and the airier exterior treatment of wood cladding, which highlights the building's mediating role. Lastly, the metal roof unfolds in two independent sections, completing the building by amplifying its interaction with the landscape through the projection of the overhanging roof outside the close volume. Its slope, lightness and materiality make it a decisive element in the dialogue between the landscape, the pavilions facing it and the program. The twofold context of the community hall means that its composition can be approached in two stages: first, by presenting elements that can be immediately grasped on the scale of the landscape, and then by drawing attention to the details of the texture and assembly of complementary materials. The volume has a rectangular floor plan and remains fundamentally elementary. As an element of territorial identity, this festive barn invokes both, urban and landscape dimensions.
Nestled in the great landscape of the Mauldre valley, the new Beynes community hall has become a central element of this small town with its satellite hamlets. Implanted in an autonomous plot of land away from any urbanization, and yet fully booked for the year to come by the inhabitants of the nearby town, the community hall shows the power architecture possess to provoke use and social life, even in remote places, when its form and materials truly interact with its site.
Graal is an office dedicated to architecture and urban strategies, which strives to emphasize economic, constructive and material logics in its work.
Its projects are developed through an analytical and situated approach, giving a genuine role to investigation, uses and architectural devices throughout their design. Graal aspires to render the specificities of a place and a commission through sober, independent language in relation to its territory. Through a consistent attitude at all levels and a relational approach to space, the projects aim to achieve a positive social and environmental impact.
This position nurtured through close collaboration with multidisciplinary consultants enables Graal to address all dimensions, from the domestic to the territorial scale, so as to ensure intelligent projects.
Graal has been the recipient of several national and international awards. Its practice is further enhanced by teaching and research on project economics and non-decisional language
