Niwa 办公室 | Sight | 2024 | 法国

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niwa, the new Toulouse headquarters of GA Smart Building, has taken its position on the Piste des Géants at the heart of the Toulouse Aerospace district, a few steps from the Halle de la Machine. niwa has been designed as a place conducive to the conception of sustainable real-estate, a place for activity, collaboration and innovation. This lively project reflects new ways of living and working together.

In direct relation to its urban surroundings, the architectural project dialogues with the buzz of the new and expanding district and the forthcoming footbridge that will connect it with the Rangueil science park.

Its ‘active’ base is alive with a variety of services. Innovative and welcoming, it combines lyrical landscapes with current preoccupations in terms of circular economy (re-use) in an interior fit-out by Sight: architects, interior architects and designers.

Largely open over the wider landscape, the upper levels house office floors that represent the preoccupations of Sight and GA Smart Building in terms of new ways of working, of off-site design, and the importance of technology to serve the user.

The entrance (1) opens onto different landscapes and invites you to explore. Users are quickly attracted by the verticality of the café area (2), a place conducive to meeting people and informal exchange, in the middle of which stands the niwaki, a tree festooned in pink blossom that rayonates its lyrical power and inspires throughout the year.

The adjoining cafeteria area (3) is cheerful and welcoming, inviting users to take a longer break in this space bathed in natural light, opening onto the garden and adjoining terraces. A few steps take you to a place of introspection; the library (4), hushed and uncluttered, seems to float in suspension above the garden landscape. Beyond this, the creative glasshouse (5) with its zen and colourful atmosophere, invites work in groups and pooled knowledge.

Moving up towards the mezzanine, the floor lifts into a sculptural piece, inviting visitors to sit and chat on the steps of the amphitheatre (6). The culminating point of this buzzing base, the shared kitchen (7) offers users the option of cooking in a domestic atmosphere at their workplace.

Finally, all of these spaces that make up niwa’s active base are linked to the upper office floors by a staircase for contemplation, L’éclaircie (8).

Today, more than 46 million tonnes of waste are generated by the building industry in France every year. On top of this, the increasing scarcity of available ressources and materials is forcing us to change how we design and produce our living and working spaces. We need a paradigm shift: repare, upcycle, re-use.

Sight worked to identify sources of waste in GA Smart Building factories and around the Toulouse area. The waste that was found, collected and transformed (broken acro props, metal bars, dismantled railings, off-cuts of wood, recycled shells, etc.) made it possible to create new forms and new materials to fit out the spaces.

From waste, these residual materials were transformed into useful ressources for the fabrication of furniture and fittings. Their aesthetic was established quite naturally: acro props became table legs, ground-up shells were used to create a terrazzo effect, off-cuts of metal cable shuttering became planters.

In the upper floors, the offices are widely glazed spaces bathed in natural light and open onto the wider landscape.

The star-shaped configuration of the office floors frees up four areas organized around a central meeting zone, favouring informal social moments.

Different layouts were tried out with the use of various furniture in order to provide a range of ways of working – alone or in groups.

These different ‘situations’ can be modified for the particular needs of a week, a day, or even an hour.

The flexibility offered to users by the absence of a designated desk favours concentration, collaboration, and ease of mobility within the office space.

niwa offers a range of equipment developed by GA Smart Building and designed by Sight for a smart and sustainable building, a demonstration of positive-impact design to reduce energy consumption.

The facades ‘breathe’ with the help of latest generation air-conditioning modules dimenshioned for plentiful fresh air and providing additional warmth from active concrete floorslabs. Beyond their technical function, these elements form seating around the facade for use within the workspace.

‘Smart’ meeting modules facilitate exchange between colleagues, supporting creativity in the teams and ensuring wellbeing within an enclosed space. They sit discretely within the office spaces (edge-to-edge glazed partitions, absence of structural posts at the corners). The back wall structure incorporates a conference screen and all the connections necessary for the use of this space, including efficient air renewal.

GA Smart Building has developed a range of products for quality work spaces, ensuring rapid and controlled construction and implementation, while respecting the environment.

The design of niwa is based on ‘off-site’ construction methods, that is to say the assembly of products pre-fabricated in a factory and then delivered onto the site.

The prefabricated toilet modules are transportable to be ready for installation.

They are devised as series but arrangement can be personalized. They are designed for user privacy and comfort.

At the heart of niwa, GA Smart Building’s structural products ensure the building’s durability and provide a solid, sustainable base for all the architectural ambitions. They are left visible and enhanced by ‘attentions’, contrasts, as they reveal an expertise and the beauty of a tectonic achievement pursued by Sight.