Chamber of Trades and Crafts in Nord-Pas-de-Calais

The construction project of Building 02 of the Chamber of Trades and Crafts aims to bring together a restaurant, a hairdressing school open to the public, tertiary activities, and accommodation in the immediate vicinity of the headquarters (Building 01). This general intention, which was realised as part of the building permit, is introduced by Building 01, the "masterpiece" of the sector. The 80 metre wide building confirms its horizontal architectural structure by reinforcing the levels and sobriety of its façades. As a strong urban element, it borders the town square and is reinforced by building 02. The latter, without overshadowing the former, is intended to continue these architectural intentions through the simplicity of its façades, which are elegant and minimal. These final alignments respect the general elevations and the levels of the acrotères. In response to the programmatic intentions, the building offers separate entrances on the ground floor for each event and at the same time the most public parts of the city: on Rue Abélard is the entrance to the tertiary area, characterised by an awning. At the most visible south/west corner is the fully glazed application lounge, which is aimed at the neighbourhood and ready to receive the public. To the opposite is the shared entrance to the hairdressing school and leads to the perspective of the central terrace. Finally, the restaurant offers two beautiful glass façades and a cafeteria open to the public space. The east façade, on the other hand, offers the glass side of the apprentice restaurant towards the park and at the same time, points to the more technical area of the kitchen in the landscaped entire property. The functional division of the four projects is very clearly organised by level. In this way, an obvious separation of functions is achieved, allowing for separate management, fire insulation and a reduction of the overall property to its simplest expression (emergency exit and general structural elements). A large terrace was created in the centre of the building to bring maximum light into the heart of the project. Every part of the building thus benefits from direct daylight. The terrace changes its geometry on each floor to adapt to the building elements, creating a high-quality hollow architectural space. The project is entirely based on a concrete post and beam system, ensuring the real stability and durability of the structure as well as the thermal inertia required for this type of building. This structure also allows a real modularity of partitioning for scalability reasons.