The head office of the Caisse d'Epargne responds to a desire for exemplarity, modularity and intelligence. The building is designed with a wooden structural skeleton, a prefabricated concrete floor, an exo-wooden structure covered with a glass double skin. It is built 100% dry process (and offsite) and has 2580 m3 of wood, that is 2580 T of stored CO2. Built to a high thermal standard (passive building), it is also designed so that natural light spreads over all the workstations, ensuring excellent quality of use. The implementation of the smart building certification (R2S) allows an open and communicating building.
Innovation :
The building is set on a slope, facing a landscape where, in good weather, the peak of Mont Blanc rises in the distance. Its glazed skin, placed lightly on the timber exostructure, allows the wooden mesh to appear or to reflect the great landscape, making the building disappear, depending on the weather. All the offices (mostly 300 m2) and meeting rooms (located between the atrium and the patio) have natural daylight. The formal dissociation of the structural elements, according to their role and behavior ("dynamic" for the bracing exoskeleton, but "static" for the column-beams of the facades with MOB filling), allowed the realization of a bioclimatic ventilated double skin. Made of simple extra-clear glass, the external wall of the latter is suspended from the upper beams of the wooden exoskeleton. The combination of concrete, timber, steel and glass makes this building unique.
Environmental qualities ans sustainability
The building is set on a slope, facing a landscape where, in good weather, the peak of Mont Blanc rises in the distance. Its glazed skin, placed lightly on the timber exostructure, allows the wooden mesh to appear or to reflect the great landscape, making the building disappear, depending on the weather. All the offices (mostly 300 m2) and meeting rooms (located between the atrium and the patio) have natural daylight. The formal dissociation of the structural elements, according to their role and behavior ("dynamic" for the bracing exoskeleton, but "static" for the column-beams of the facades with MOB filling), allowed the realization of a bioclimatic ventilated double skin. Made of simple extra-clear glass, the external wall of the latter is suspended from the upper beams of the wooden exoskeleton. The combination of concrete, timber, steel and glass makes this building unique.
Integration in its environment & benefits to the community
Located on the heights of Dijon, a few meters from the tramway stop, the building is built of seven levels, allowing it to be seen from a distance from the city's expressway. Its wooden structure echoes the local resources of the Burgundy Franche Comté region, whose reputation for hardwood and softwood forests is well known (particularly the Morvan's forest). The entrance sequence on the ground floor is paved with Burgundy stone from the nearby quarry. The work was carried out by companies all originating from Burgundy Franche Comté in order to continue the development of regional resources and know-how. The choice of construction allowed for a reduction in assembly time while minimizing the impact on the environment, the difficulty of working and the nuisance to the neighbours.
This building allows the bank to be part of the environmental issue, to display its exemplary and unique nature without ostentation.