VINCI Group regional headquarters, Rennes - Parc architectes

Project: VINCI Group Regional Headquarters - Program: Offices - Business premises - Architect: Parc architectes - Client: VINCI Group - Site: Boulevard Solferino, 3500 Rennes - Surface area: 7,000 m2 SDP - Winner 2021 - In study phase

Air on every floor
With the current health crisis, lockdowns and home-working, air has become a central issue. How can we rethink the workplace through the prism of well-being and fresh air? Forms of the workplace have evolved and diversified, and a pleasant work environment is a way to collaborate effectively, to bring together teams and to retain employees. Parc architectes presents an evolution in the design habits of office spaces; introducing more domesticity. With this approach, the agency promotes a healthy and stimulating working environment for the VINCI Group teams.

Entrance Hall – ‘Bike Coffee shop’
The hall is no longer considered only as a frontal meeting with the reception desk but as a first place of meeting and exchange. Added to the program, the agency has imagined a bike coffee shop: a space where you can park your bike and meet your colleagues, and where you can make your guests wait by having a coffee in a lively place.

Open plans – Bay windows
Inside the regional headquarters, the interior atmosphere is adjustable and within reach through swinging bays and window doors so that the common space can be ventilated as desired. This allows us to reconnect with the outdoors.

Balcony – Outdoor spaces
Outdoor spaces are often lacking in work spaces, while taking the air allows to recharge and oxygenate. The building, designed by Parc architectes, extends the work space to the outside with balconies. This allows colleagues to go outside at any time of the day to air their minds, have a private discussion or make a phone call.

Loggia – Belvedere Terrace
Conviviality spaces are often relegated to less prestigious areas of an office building. The project installs them on the top floor, open to the South on the railway river, and on the bow of the building to the East on the 4th floor. These windowed spaces, functioning as winter gardens, are heated by the sun in mid-season. They can be opened in the warmer months, offering an overview of the surrounding landscape.

Open plans – Resilience in housing
As part of the reflection on 2050 scenarios, Parc architectes focused on the resilience of the building. The perimeter balconies give it an easy capacity to become an apartment building.

Climates – Passive devices
In order to anticipate and adapt to climate change and reduce energy use, the development of various passive climate devices are integrated into the design of the building. First of all, the swinging bays and window doors allow for natural and easy ventilation of the spaces. They ensure the operation of free-cooling by ventilating the spaces at night and by cooling the bare concrete ceilings, which use their inertia to diffuse the coolness of the night during the day. Ventilation of the premises is all the easier as the building, on the edge of the tracks, is unobstructed and the city of Rennes is well swept by the wind.

Secondly, the concrete floors are active. They are traversed by fluid coils and left at temperature to adjust the interior climate. Finally, the balconies provide additional solar protection in the summer to avoid overheating the facades when the sun is high, while taking advantage of free heat gains the rest of the year when the sun is lower.

Materials – Wood and concrete
For the construction elements, the use of concrete for the structure is reduced to the necessary, the columns and the floors. Thus, the weight of the construction and the carbon footprint are limited. In addition, the facades are made of wood joinery, which provides bio-sourced materials and stores carbon. These wooden elements are protected by the peripheral balconies and their durability is guaranteed. They will naturally be protected from ageing by the overhangs of the balconies. In addition, the balconies facilitate access to the facades and allow easy maintenance, which contributes to the durability of the structure.

City - Along the river
The building is located on the bank of the river as a large, finely structured and taut installation. Its architecture on the south side responds to the lines of the railway. On the north side, facing the Boulevard Solferino, the building progressively recedes into the upper floors to allow light to enter the street and to respond to the opposite epannelages.

Offices - Open air balconies
The project of Parc architectes is in line with the architectural research conducted by the studio. The principles put forward will allow the work space to evolve towards greater well-being.
The building's image reflects both the technical know-how of the VINCI group through its precise and taut concrete structure, as well as a concern for respecting the environment through the use of wooden facades. The project, designed to ensure the well-being of its occupants, provides teams with a healthy, bright and comfortable workplace.

The balconies bring a domestic character that renews the type of office building and offers employees new places to share and gather in an open-air environment.