Façade systems using breathing glazing benefit from several ATEx (Appréciation Technique d’Expérimentation - Technical Experimental Assessment) and Technical Assessments and are widely used particularly for the office tower buildings in the La Défense district near Paris. This French technique had not yet been exported, but this has now changed: the fourth extension of the European Court of Justice in Luxemburg, designed by Dominique Perrault, will be provided with a façade made of breathing glazing.
Unlike previous high speed train lines, the TGV East line forms part of a global development project for which all work was initiated simultaneously from one end of the route to the other. The most emblematic constructions designed by the AREP design and engineering office, an SNCF subsidiary, include the renovation of the large arch made of glass blocks in Paris Gare de l’Est, and construction of the large glass roof adjacent to the main façade of Strasbourg station. The immense transparent ovoid more than 120 m long has become a genuine innovation project for SEELE, the contractor, with the manufacturing and installation of cold-formed laminated glazing.
Wuhan is the 12th largest city in China with more than 8 million inhabitants, and is currently building a station worthy of the spectacular development of the country and the Province of Hubei of which it is the capital. Above the railways, the entrance and central space promise to extend under an immense roof covered with a reflecting aluminum sun-shade made by an Italian manufacturer. AREP, SNCF’s design and engineering office subsidiary responsible for the project, called in CSTB lighting experts to provide a precise solution to a Chinese owner who enjoys artificial light and night magic.
The new terminal 2 boarding satellite designed by Aéroports de Paris was commissioned in June 2007, continuing the development of Europe’s leading hub. S3 is designed to accommodate large carriers such as the A380, and deploys a genuine range of know-how over its 750-meter length. Its objective is to handle 8.5 million passengers per year in well-illuminated spaces with clearly understandable functions. CSTB has issued not less than Six Technical Experimental Assessments to many companies responsible for making the glass walls of the structure.
For one of their “Cartes blanches", Archinov and CSTB invited Patrick Bouchain, the architect of the Zingaro theatre in Aubervilliers and the "Lieu Unique" in Nantes. He is an atypical qualified architect, positioning himself between the client and the project manager. He limits himself to few means and he makes the best use of the regulations, to create projects satisfying real demands from the architectural community. He acts as a responsible citizen capable of questioning the program, and federates a very wide variety of skills in the context of "democratic" sites, in other words constantly open to the public, rather than working on technical and aesthetic projects difficult to achieve.
