Cristal Riviera entry by Périphériques Architectes + a/LTA architectes + Hamonic&Masson

French firms Périphériques Architectes, a/LTA architectes, and Hamonic&Masson recently sent us their entry for the Cristal Riviera competition from this past June. The competition was held as part of a renovation program around the Rennes railway station area to improve connectivity within Rennes, France.

The team's entry consists of three tectonic and crystal-form mixed-use buildings that were individually designed by each firm. They didn't place in the competition, however, their project is still worth a look.

Check out some images they sent us right below.

Project description:

"The Féval city-block is a significant part of the renovation program performed around the Rennes rail-station. The urban project is developed by FGP and Territores. The project suggests to develop a new territory to connect the two sides of the city involving changes in landscape and topography. The railway road passes through urban structures like a river would pass through giant tectonic monuments in a form of large crystals.

The project consists of three buildings made by 3 different architects, the whole project is structured around a landscape rift. The 'crystals' are carved in a way to make the inner territory be reachable by sunlight."

"We defined a section of the office by calibrating floors to 3.40m slab to slab. Savings in the height of each floor added up to one additional floor for the 28m building. Thus this solution created a large area which gives us the flexibility to "cut" large volumes to produce fancy crystal-like shapes making all composition more spectacular. This ability to resize volumes allows us to create a valley where the three buildings meet on the Féval Street and allow daylight to enter into the center of the block.

Success of the Féval city-block depends heavily on the quality of the infrastructure on the ground floors of the three buildings. We paid particular attention to increasing accessibility to the inner spaces from the outside."

Project data:

Architects: Périphériques Architectes, a/LTA architectes, Hamonic&Masson
Project managers:
Périphériques: Anne Clerget et Julie-Laure Anthonioz
a-lta: Gwénaël LE CHAPELAIN, Alexandre PLANTADY
Hamonic et Masson: Benjamin EXBRAYAT

BET TCE-Economie: Cabinet Collin
BET TCE Structure-Electricité-Ecoustique: INGEROP,
BET Fluides: ITF Bruno GEORGES,
Conseil en Urbanisme Commercial et Projets Urbains (Commercial urbanism and urban project consultant): SAGACITY

Client: Groupe Brémond
Program: Bureaux, cinema, commerces, restauration area (offices, cinema, retail, restaurants)
Total area: 21,640 m²
Offices: 16,820 m²
Cinema: 3,530 m²
Retail, restaurants: 1,290 m²
Location: Féval city block – ZAC EURORENNES, RENNES (35)
Cost: 30M € including VAT (value June 2013)
Calendar - Competition: June 2013 / Competition Entry