"Cité des Affaires" Office Building

这个地块是圣埃蒂安市中心与新的Chateaucreux街区之间的重要联络点，形成了一个主要的入口。它也构成了将多个政府部门聚集到一起的极点。生活服务设施和休闲设施也是共用企业餐厅、咖啡厅、市区旅游局组合的一部分。

这个理念是在地块上修建一个与相邻街道相呼应的‘连续体’。直线式建筑自下向上建造，在展现地平线的同时也与其相呼应，形成一栋低矮的无障碍建筑——一栋开设有宽敞的庭院并将粗犷的悬壁结构吊起的建筑。

每一个大隔区都有一条进入路线：主入口面向Grüner大街的广场开放，吸引行人来到滑动中的项目。高吊顶为这个入口提供遮盖并将其放大，这是三个入口中最好也是最大的一个入口。另外两个大‘入口’面对给地块带来较大人流量的街道开放本项目，从而将行人在这个区域内的行程连接起来。

我们希望实现建筑的连续性，这并不仅仅反映了修建一个清晰可辨的城市地标的想法，同时也提供了项目所需的灵活性。事实上，支持这个连续体的原则是设想一个‘连通部分’组合，使用户管理能够全部融入一个整体，并根据与其他租户的需求相一致的需求发展。表面没有任何中断，将确保事物保持开放式，并且有可能扩大或缩小空间面积。

本项目就像是一条巨大的‘阿兹台克之蛇’。它的身体有三个相同的外表面和一个与众底面面：银色透明鳞片皮肤，有光泽但不透明的橙黄色‘喉头’。

表面的这种双重处理，都遵守了整个过程中所遵从的简单逻辑，即在重复中表达明确。根据这些移动，黄色的底面可以是浮动的顶盖或内部竖墙，在充足的灯光条件下，内部有行人走动：颜色必须鲜艳、明亮和纯净，以增强地块内的自然光线。这么多美丽的黄色相互接近，使路面和玻璃立面明亮起来；投洒出的金色像阳光一样散布在上面……这是一个把黄色和灰色、银色和金色融合到一起的项目，有点像太阳……

事实上，这种黄色确实会影响我们所期望的效果，真正辐照到整个环境。在区域内的任何一处位置，都可以看到面向外部开放的室内街道可以捕捉和吸引到的一抹黄色。这种颜色反射在幕墙的玻璃外墙上，进而放大，金色光芒在玻璃外墙上形成一道道光晕。室内办公室可以看到暖色的反光体，使反光亮度增加。

The site is a vital liaison point between the centre of Saint-Etienne and the new Chateaucreux neighbourhood, to which it forms a major entranceway. It also constitutes a pole grouping several government bodies. Service and leisure facilities are also part of the mix: shared corporate restaurant, café, tourism bureau for the metropolitan area.The idea is to develop a long built ‘continuum’ on the site to interact with adjacent streets. A linear construction that rears up and unfolds but also hugs the ground line to form a low accessible building - one that opens spacious courts and lifts bold overhangs.

Each of its large bays serves an access route: the main portal opens to the concourse on avenue Grüner, which draws pedestrians into the project in a sliding movement. A high ceiling shelters and magnif i es this entranceway, which is the fi nest and largest of three. The other two large ‘ports’ open the project to the streets that irrigate the lot,interconnecting pedestrian itineraries in the area.

Our desire for continuity in construction does not simply ref l ect the idea of building a legible and unitary urban landmark, it also provides the fl exibility that the project needs. In fact, the principle behind this continuum is to imagine a set of ‘communicating parts’ that enable the user-administrations to merge into a whole, one and all, and to evolve according to their needs in harmony with those of other tenants. The absence of breaks in surfaces will ensure that things remain open-ended, with the possibility of extending or reducing space.

The project is like a large ‘Aztec serpent’ rising on the lot. Its body has three identical outer faces, and an underside that is different: a skin of silvery transparent scales and a bright yellow ‘throat’, shiny and opaque.

This dual treatment of surfaces obeys a simple logic shared throughout, which aims at expressing clarity in folds. Depending on these movements, the yellow underside is either a floating canopy or an interior vertical wall, accompanying internal pedestrian movements with its rich luminous presence: the color has to be vivid, light and pure, to enhance the natural light inside the site. The nearness of so much gorgeous yellow brightens up pavements and glazed elevations; casting golden washes over them like sunlight…This is a project that is about bringing together yellow and grey, silver and gold, and a little bit like a sun…

In fact, this yellow color does have the impact that we had hoped for;it truly radiates throughout the context. From anywhere in the area one can get a glimpse of the yellow interior street that opens up to the exterior, captures and attracts. The color ref l ects and multiplies itself on the glass façades of the curtain walls, haloing them with golden gleams. The inside offces enjoy the warm views on theses ref l ections, their brightness is increased.