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Children's Toy Library
Children's Toy Library
14, Rue Michel Goutier, Bonneuil-sur-Marne, France
Project Featured on Oct 29, 2016
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Other Projects by LAN Architecture
Children's Toy Library
14, Rue Michel Goutier, Bonneuil-sur-Marne, France
Project Featured on Oct 29, 2016
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2008
BUDGET
$10M - 50M
Transformation, alteration and programme hybridisationThe Bonneuil-sur-Marne children’s toy library is a public building as
well as a play space for children. The project creates an opposition between
monumentality and the need for a warm, friendly environment within the same
building.
It is located in an area where 1960s social housing has had a strong
physical and social impact. The exterior and interior spaces are designed to
respect the dual nature of the building. The monolithic shell-like elevations
are closely linked to the surrounding urban context. We wanted to create a
strong urban symbol able to stand out from its environment, whose shell would
protect its core and participate in the regeneration of Bonneuil-sur-Marne’s
social structures.
The architectural
approach: towards a shell-like solution
The design of the Bonneuil-sur-Marne children’s toy library resulted
from an approach that aimed to simultaneously resolve a number of problems and
develop new ideas:
- New use for an existing building
- Design of a children’s play area
- Creation of a small-scale public facility in a socially unstable area
occupied by large housing complexes
- The difficulties of a very restricted budget (initially, the programme
simply called for a new interior layout)
We decided to design a building that had no sense of scale and which
would appear timeless, a dense solid mass, an urban symbol standing out from
its environment, a shell able to protect its contents.
The result is a volume that seems to have always existed and whose
bunker-like appearance is reminiscent of a vernacular construction.
A new skin for an old
body
Our strategy was inspired by a medical logic of intervention. The
creation of an additional freestanding skin allowed us to control the
interfaces between exterior spaces, building and interior spaces, as well as
meet the need to provide generous volumes.
The new elevations covering the existing building are adapted to the
building’s changed use and provide for the incorporation of a new main
entrance, an open courtyard on ground floor level and additional surface areas
for administrative functions. This solution maintained the existing in-situ
cast green-tinted concrete shell.
The decision was taken to create a hermetic separation between the
exterior and the open and colourful interior spaces. Children play in a sort of
cocoon, rich in light variations, that rises up over the two levels; a simple,
functional and comfortable scale and volume fully adapted to the needs of its
users.
well as a play space for children. The project creates an opposition between
monumentality and the need for a warm, friendly environment within the same
building.
It is located in an area where 1960s social housing has had a strong
physical and social impact. The exterior and interior spaces are designed to
respect the dual nature of the building. The monolithic shell-like elevations
are closely linked to the surrounding urban context. We wanted to create a
strong urban symbol able to stand out from its environment, whose shell would
protect its core and participate in the regeneration of Bonneuil-sur-Marne’s
social structures.
The architectural
approach: towards a shell-like solution
The design of the Bonneuil-sur-Marne children’s toy library resulted
from an approach that aimed to simultaneously resolve a number of problems and
develop new ideas:
- New use for an existing building
- Design of a children’s play area
- Creation of a small-scale public facility in a socially unstable area
occupied by large housing complexes
- The difficulties of a very restricted budget (initially, the programme
simply called for a new interior layout)
We decided to design a building that had no sense of scale and which
would appear timeless, a dense solid mass, an urban symbol standing out from
its environment, a shell able to protect its contents.
The result is a volume that seems to have always existed and whose
bunker-like appearance is reminiscent of a vernacular construction.
A new skin for an old
body
Our strategy was inspired by a medical logic of intervention. The
creation of an additional freestanding skin allowed us to control the
interfaces between exterior spaces, building and interior spaces, as well as
meet the need to provide generous volumes.
The new elevations covering the existing building are adapted to the
building’s changed use and provide for the incorporation of a new main
entrance, an open courtyard on ground floor level and additional surface areas
for administrative functions. This solution maintained the existing in-situ
cast green-tinted concrete shell.
The decision was taken to create a hermetic separation between the
exterior and the open and colourful interior spaces. Children play in a sort of
cocoon, rich in light variations, that rises up over the two levels; a simple,
functional and comfortable scale and volume fully adapted to the needs of its
users.
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