Multifunctional Building and Infrastructure / bunq architectes

Architects: bunq architectes
Location: Gland, Switzerland
Architects In Charge: Laurent Gaille, Philipe Gloor, Julien Grisel, Cyril Lecoultre
Area: 2250.0 m2
Project Year: 2012
Photographs: Thomas Jantscher

Other Participants: Maxence Derlet, Nils Meulemans, Chritophe Aebi, Pierre Dufournet

From the architect. The multifunctional building for the town of Gland combines halls, garages, workshops, council offices and rooms for local societies all under a single roof. The programme is similar to a multi-tenant building as the rooms can be adapted to different types of use.

The position on the edge of the property gives it a valuable reserve of land for future development. The rooms are also organised in a way that enables functional connections to the existing buildings. The building entrance is on the same level as the car park, while the halls and garages are connected to the road maintenance and cleaning services.

The building presents a rather elongated, narrow volume with a folding roof and two translucent facades through which one can sense the respective activities taking place behind them.

In the conference rooms, a large southern window provides a panorama view of the Geneva Lake and the Alps.

The load-bearing structure consists of floor slabs and reinforced concrete walls in the section for society rooms and council offices. In the hall area, pillars and beams made of prefabricated concrete assume the load-bearing task. The roof construction is built with wooden girders attached to two sheets of plywood, with cellulose insulation injected inside. The roof is covered with sheets of pre-weathered zinc. The side facades are covered with corrugated polycarbonate attached to a timber construction. The structure of the facades depends on the level of comfort required in the relevant rooms. For instance, the facade around the unheated hall only has one layer of corrugated polycarbonate, while the tempered storage rooms are insulated by an inner layer of honeycomb-shaped polycarbonate. The insulation is more important for the heated rooms, where either a thicker layer of honeycomb polycarbonate or layers of rock wool insulation on a wall of concrete blocks is used.