TO THE POINT – VMZINC’s column

School 42, Station F: the ultimate response

Following up my prospective message (post “VMZINC in 2050”), it was only normal to highlight and celebrate the opening of the “largest start-ups campus in the world”, in the famous Freyssinet hall (*)in the 13th district of Paris.

Xavier Niel, the leader and co-funder (with the French Deposits and Consignments Fund) of this huge project had already accustomed us to daring, pertinent initiatives such as the opening in 2013 of the now famous Ecole 42 (°), on Boulevard Bessières in Paris’s 17th district, and its American replica, opened in 2016 in San Francisco.

School 42: access to training that is highly qualifying but awards no diplomas!

Tirelessly fighting the gaps in official educational sectors that continue to organise the selection of a certain elite, Xavier Niel quickly understood that the development of his telecommunications activities would rapidly require coders, programmers and IT developers that public and private schools would not be able to provide him with, because they did not anticipate the exponential demand for these skills.

Hence the creation of this non-fee paying school with no diplomas for people aged between 18 and 30, providing atypical profiles often left aside by the French national Education system. Admission to the school is offered following an interview to assess motivation, offering access to training and a career in the digital sector.

The school’s pedagogy is unique, based on the concept of “peer-to-peer learning”: a participative approach enabling students to express their creativity thanks to learning via projects. The duration? The flexible, customised curriculum lasts approximately three years, according to the learning period required by each student. Is this not currently the best response to what should be the school of the future?

Why 42?

The figure 42 does not correspond to the number of the building on Boulevard Bessières, as one might think. It is in fact a subtle reference to the 2005 film “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” based on the work of Douglas Adams, and in which the figure 42 is presented as the ultimate response to “The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything”.

Station F:

Xavier Niel took the same approach to design the gigantic STATION F project (F for Freyssinet): create the optimum conditions necessary for the maturation and launch of young start-ups, in a French environment not sufficiently inclined to mobilise the energy and skills of young potential entrepreneurs or to create the necessary conditions.

Because, according to its creators, STATION F “brings together an entire entrepreneurial ecosystem under one (huge) roof”. Simple and at the same time complicated to do!

A few key figures on the site:

· Open 24/7

· 34,000 useable square metres

· 3,000 workstations in the start-up zone

· 26 support programmes for international start-ups

· 1 makerspace

· 1 restaurant, 4 kitchens, 1 café, 1 bar

· 8 events spaces

So Xavier Niel thinks big, and he also thinks broad, because he decided to open access to non-French start-uppers, if their project and their motivation convince the selection team, who will have a lot of work on its plate in the coming weeks.

A sign that this venture is ambitious: partnerships with the big digital players (GAFA) were established right from the project genesis. They act as guarantors and bring an international dimension, so that Xavier Niel’s ambition can be achieved as soon as possible!

And all this is taking place in a venue that delights me! (*)

The Freyssinet hall is a remarkable building constructed in 1927. The pre-stressed concrete (invented by the great Eugène Freyssinet), applied here in a daring manner, made it possible to give this utilitarian hall an exceptionally lightweight supporting structure, which led to it being added in  2012 to the French Supplementary Historic Monuments List. Until 2006, it housed the message centre of the Gare d'Austerlitz train station. Its conversion into a school delights me greatly because, apart from making the building last, it demonstrates that a building designed and constructed carefully can adapt to new programming and remain modern after almost a century!

VMZINC

TO THE POINT - VMZINC’s column

Extreme Zinc Saga: The (big) house in the prairie!

My extreme zinc section is yet again transporting us to the other side of the world. This superb single-family house was built in the south-west of New Zealand’s South Island, close to Queenstown. It is in this breathtaking preserved region, evocative of the origin of the world, that director Peter Jackson filmed his famous “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

A house in osmosis with its environment

The programme of the house is very legible as it is all on the ground floor. The Darfield family’s house, designed by KOIA Architects and built in 2010, was designed with a somewhat “prairie school” spirit, which gave rise at the beginning of the 20th century in Wisconsin to the construction of vast houses overlooking nature, in particular those famous ones designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The magnificent landscape and the topography of the plot strongly influenced the design. Three simple volumes are organised around a sort of central rectangular courtyard where cars coming to the house can park. The three volumes are covered with a roof whose single slope is inclined towards the interior, thus making it possible to install huge windows on the sides facing outwards overlooking the nearby mountains.

Views are particularly spectacular in winter as, in the snow, the house seems totally blended into the landscape!

Zinc on the roof and also on the interior walls

The use of zinc in house alone is in itself worth the visit. The black pre-weathered QUARTZ-ZINC installed in parallel standing seam strips on all of the roofs and opaque facades unifies the construction.

The large garage door, also clad in zinc, is noteworthy. When closed, it almost disappears from view by blending identically with the cladding. The ultimate refinement lies in the fact that the same zinc was used to clad several interior 

walls.

Particularly flawless installation

It took almost three months by ship to convey the coils of zinc from Europe (where our rolling mills are located) to our storage point in Melbourne. After which they were redirected by ship to the port of Christchurch.

The zinc was installed flawlessly to resist harsh weather conditions. Our local partner, the aptly named “Architectural Roofing Company”, paid particular attention to roof and facade junctions.  The ribbing of the zinc sheets is continuous, giving a touch of elegance that could be qualified as “rustic refinement” to the house, which has a wooden frame.

Our local team confirmed that the roof is still in situ, serenely ensuring watertightness in an extreme climatic context marked by strong variations in temperature. The black zinc gradually developed its natural patina, giving it a beautiful dark grey colour.

Perhaps this beautiful house will soon serve as a showcase where a future film will be shot!

 VMZINC

(*) PO Box 6025, Upper Riccarton, Christchurch 8442, New Zealand.

[email protected]

TO THE POINT – VMZINC’s column

Will “frugal” be the next new buzzword for the coming months?

 On Monday 19 September 2016, I attended a conference at the maison de l’Architecture in the 10th district of Paris organised by the OFF du Développement Durable (Sustainable Development Fringe Festival). The “OFF du DD” was launched in 2012 by the ICEB (Institut pour la Conception Eco responsable du Bâti – Institute for Eco-responsible Design of Buildings) and the CO2D (Collectif Démarche Durable – Sustainable Approach Collective) with a view to providing visibility for groundbreaking projects that are often non-standard (hence the term Fringe – as used during the Avignon Theatre Festival ndlr), which prefigure ways of working, architectural solutions and techniques for the future.

What is a frugal project?

On the agenda of the conference: “the frugal city”, a concept that at a first glance seems already well-rooted with sustainable building specialists.

At the entrance, we were asked what did the word “frugal” mean for us. The answers given covered a broad spectrum of notions: from the most hostile (“more new restrictions!”) to the most optimistic (“it will do us good to lose a bit of weight”) via amalgamations (“frugality means low tech”).

Three areas of reflection were referred to in order to define the framework of a frugal project:

- Integration, in the broad sense, of the project into its environment (urban fabric or more generally, the surrounding landscape). We refer here to its physical and energy footprint,

 - Compulsory anticipation - from the design phase - of probable changes in climate, society, and behaviour, for the next 20 to 30 years and,

 - The “desirability” of projects, which is necessary to compensate for the decrease in resources and the effort that is sometimes required from users who may have participated in its design and construction.

The projects selected during the previous editions of the OFF du Développement Durable (*) made it possible to define a typology for the “frugal human establishment” at all levels, from that of the building to that of the territory:

- promoting the bioclimatic and passive approach for energy and comfort,

- promoting bio-sourced constructive systems and materials, with low grey energy or low carbon (ideal for zinc!),  

- with moderate and eco-responsible use of technology for technical systems and networks,

- integrated into their territory for resources, impacts, and cultural, social & economic life,

- co-defined with participation from inhabitants, consideration of use and responsibility of users.

An enlightening presentation by Laure Planchais, French landscape architect

“Landscape architects are pioneers of frugality”, explained Laure Planchais, a French landscape architect who shared her solid experience of this approach that aims to always make the best of the site. Using various examples, she illustrated her preoccupations and her philosophy of designing gardens: provide panoramic views and focus on contact with water (brooks, streams, ponds, water features).

The key points in what she said? A lot of common sense remarks throughout her presentation of her work: usefulness of cribs in a frugal project, cost-effective when they are used for support and far less so when they are used for cladding ; the  importance of balance between excavated/fill material, which avoids unnecessary transport of soil ; greening of brownfield sites while waiting for final budgets and planning, which makes it possible for indigenous plants to grow back; her love of “big stones”, which she leaves on site and uses rather than removing them; her penchant for planting fruit trees in motorway lay-bys where, in season, tourists can enjoy a free healthy snack.

She spoke of the famous oak mussel stakes, which, after a lifetime at sea supporting mussel colonies, were converted into an artificial forest while waiting for the real trees to grow; and of her rather fundamental decision to prohibit any watering and therefore to use frugal tree species and create spaces and relief so that they can retain water.

Laure Planchais made no bones in answering when asked to comment on “urban agriculture”. Straight off, she qualified the approach as “urban gardening”, denouncing a typically French contradiction (incentives to create these drip-fed urban crops while agricultural plots lie fallow on the outskirts of cities).

Lastly, she spoke of the limits of frugality, which is spreading to …. The prices practised in her profession (low rates – unfair competition and lack of skills).

 The frugal city: a philosophy for action rather than a building concept

At the end of this conference, my first observation: there was never really any question of frugal construction frugal cities, rather a sort of philosophy of frugality that goes way beyond savings and the lean approach, which is its authoritarian version.

The concept of frugality that is suited to building is very attractive. It is no longer systematically associated with that of restriction. It conjures notions of inventiveness and resourcefulness, a desire for concrete action individually and locally, to do things better and to feel better. Not only is it in line with history, it has been tried and tested by many people in their daily life, the growing number of people who believe that we must put common sense back into our consumption models.

Fifty years from now, the world will be frugal or will be no longer!

 VMZINC

(*) Call for proposals:

This conference also marked the launch of the call for proposals (14/09/16 to 14/11/16) for the 4th edition of the OFF du DD competition.  

The projects selected (selection will take place between 15/11/16 and 31/12/16 via a dual participative regional and national selection) will be simultaneously and interactively presented at all sites: Paris, Lyon, Marseille, St. Denis de la Réunion, Montpellier and Nantes

More information on the competition and the associations involved: http://www.leoffdd.fr/

Article 6/10/2016