Oz'One

An emblematic project

On Place Ernest Granier, a continuation of the historic city that extends and mirrors the city of today, this project has become emblematic in terms of both urban development and architecture. Marc Lehmann, associated architect of AS.Architecture-Studio recalls: “The land was laid out around a park designed in its time by landscape designer Michel Desvigne and conceived as a way of regulating flood levels in the city’s low plains at the end of the 90s. Already a green space, this district therefore pre-existed in the memory of residents. Something of an advantage when it came to developing an urban design that framed a natural space in this essentially residential district.”

In architectural terms, it involved creating a ‘compression of the city’ to take account of all the different neighbourhoods, create breaks, and large frames for outside views. Starting from the uniform contour of the offices, the project was devided in three elements - base, main body of the building, and attic - in continuity with the neighbourhood, explains architect Carsten Bröge who followed the progress of the operation: “The building offers a frontage patterned with commercial spaces with SSG (Structural Silicone Glazing) fitted with Reynaers CW 86-VEC to cope with the large dimensions of certain frames (1800 by 3750 mm). The vertical fault-line as a visual opening is formed by curtain walls using Reynaers CW 50-SG profiles, which allow the windows to be assembled without using exterior clamping profiles, give the appearance of a flat surface on the outside. Colourful, varied in materials and some thirty metres high, the silhouette of the building is characterised by its cut-out planes and its large urban windows dominating the landscape.” To meet the constraints of ITE (External Thermal Insulation) with integrated sunscreening that is invisible from the outside, as well as required widths of 450 to 1300 mm, the façades are fitted with 900 composite frames using Reynaers TS 57.