Real Estate complex

Bordeaux, France

Real Estate complex
Bordeaux, France
2013

program: Real Estate Complex on « Fourrière » Lot – Bassins à Flot in Bordeaux
total area: 40 000 m2
client: Bordeaux Métropole Aménagement
project: Alfonso Femia * with Jean de Giancinto – associé, AW2 Architecture
structural engineering: EGIS Bâtiment
services and environmental engineering: OASIIS
economy control office: VPEAS
acoustics: Vincent Hédon
images: ©Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia & Artefactory LAB, Julien Cottier
“It is necessary, in this dimension of ‘normality’, to create anticipation and surprise, to occupy the place like a liquid, like water occupies the Basins.” AF
The Bassins à flot are a unique urban space, the bearer of a particular story: that of a district, of a city. A meeting place between collective memory and individual memories, they must now fi nd an important place in the landscape of Bordeaux. To ensure this, the project relies on a number of concepts: the buildings seen as one body — that lives, breathes, feels, vibrates, weighs, wants; the dialogue of materials, uses, eras — the polyphony; the wonder at the unusual, the natural elements employed — the air, the earth, the light; the phenomenology of space — a work on feelings, the warmth of feelings favoured over the coldness of intellectuality.