Chazelle sur Lyon , France

Lycée des Horizons

This is a building that lives up to its name! The Horizons school in Chazelles-sur-Lyon is a huge window that looks onto the surrounding countryside.

Year of delivery

2015
Location

Chazelle sur Lyon France
Architect / signatory

ATLAS Architectes
Project owner

Région Rhône-Alpes
Photograph

Olivier Brunet

Product name

Maestral (special product)
Product form

Standard
Epidermis texture

Through body colour
Surface appearance

Plain natural
Color

Red-Orange
Work

New

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Titre d'article

Whole lotta cladding goin' on

Conceived by SOHO ATLAS, this very long building with elegantly rounded curves has been designed in accordance with the HEQ (High Environmental Quality) programme: a bioclimatic positioning to make the most of the natural light, solar panels installed on top of the wooden framework, bladed shutters to break up the sun's rays without creating darkness... In this project with an eye firmly on the future and sustainability, terracotta was a natural choice to clad the façades of the building. No less than 1000 m2 of Maestral cladding were installed here by the company Somiroc Raphat in an original and strategic setting! The architects had the smart idea of laying the bricks vertically in order to avoid facetting and emphasize the curve described by the building, in particular thanks to a very tightly arranged layout. Existing in harmony with its environment and its time, the Horizons school combines comfort and modernity in a disarmingly natural envelope, to stunning effect.

The word of

ATLAS Architectes, Architect

Interview

Luis Reggiardo, architect and partner at SOHO ATLAS Lyon, Paris, Saint Etienne, said:
“I first came across terracotta when working with Renzo Piano on the Cité Internationale project in Lyon. It's a material I particularly like because it allows architects to give full expression to their creativity: they can play with rhythms, allow a brick to protrude, lay one at an angle, another cut off... The combinations and settings are infinite! Not only that, there are no technical difficulties to install terracotta cladding. There is no need for a crane or complex calibration system. It's not structural and so offers all the flexibility of cladding. A solid material, it's easy to cut and so can be easily shaped and treated on site: a couple of passes with the polisher and you have an absolutely perfect result! Flexible, adaptable and also very solid: how can you not be won over? But what I really find wonderful about this material which has a feel, a grain, a way of catching the light is that it's on a human scale. It's a product which has been able to preserve its artisanal aspect whilst evolving over time. Producers are offering us increasingly high-performing systems and a growing range of finishes. And Terreal even provide customized products. It really gets your inspirational juices flowing!