LITERATURE

CASE STUDY
MUHAMMED HAFIL FAVAS
STRASBOURG SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
STRASBOURG SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

LOCATION : STRASBOURGE, FRANCE

ESTABLISHED : 2014

AREA : 4500 m2

ARCHITECTS : MARC MIMRAM

CLIENT : MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION

SITE & MASSING
• The school slap bang in the centre of Strasbourg.

• Couple of metres away from the main railway

station.

• The building’s rotated form helped maximise the

available volume within the compact site.

• The extensive use of metal structure is a reference

to the site’s industrial past and Strasbourg’s 19th
century architecture.

• The building’s massing consists of two-storey

blocks stacked on top of each other.
 PLANNING
• The teaching spaces are projected into the streetscape, encouraging students to engage
with the building’s context and allowing the city to permeate the ribbed veil of the façade.

• The lower block cantilevers over the transparent, ground floor plinth, while the uppermost
block steps back, providing the maximum volume within the constraints set by the
planning regulations.

• The blocks are unified by the common envelope, a semi-transparent aluminium skin that
cloaks the glazed “boxes.”

• A metal curtain glides between large bay windows to frame views across the city, its
homes and its cathedral.

• By day, the building reflects the changing light as the sun moves around the façade; by
night, inside and outside are reversed, revealing the building’s skeleton and morphing
between transparent and opaque.
 DESIGN
• THE building resembles a stack of two-storey glass and metal boxes that are rotated relative to
each other, like a Rubik’s Cube.

• The three blocks house classroom and studio spaces and are subtly twisted so that their
picture windows face prominent city landmarks.

• These blocks are raised up on just eight slender columns to leave the ground floor entirely
open and transparent, creating space for an exhibition area and a meeting place for students
and the public. Two auditoria are accommodated in the basement.

• angular facade is softened by panels of wrinkled aluminium mesh, installed over glazed walls
to create an opaque tissue-like effect.

• The steel structure is partially-visible behind the double glazing and mesh curtain, but when lit
from inside at night, the entire facade is rendered transparent, its steel skeleton revealed in
silhouette
STRUCTURE
• The two lower blocks cantilever out towards the street, while the top block steps back.

• This also enabled the creation of triangular external roof terraces, used for teaching, another
effort to connect students to their surroundings.

• In addition, it allowed a large staircase to be accommodated at the heart of the building where
students can display work for crits, with a specially-designed rail at the top for hanging models.

• The steel frame is a hybrid, alternating between an ordinary and a Vierendeel truss, with no
diagonal beams, on each floor.

• Vierendeel trusses create openings for the large picture windows and the two types are aligned in
different directions on each floor, giving the frame a semi-random appearance.

• The location of vertical and diagonal beams was calculated using a special calibration to ensure
each steel member is as thin as possible
• The aluminium mesh curtain is designed to mimic a soft fabric curtain and appears to
move with the changing light on the north and west main elevations.

• To achieve this effect, different irregularities and undulations were introduced into
the strands of mesh in each panel.

• is entirely naturally ventilated and certain mesh panels were designed to slide
sideways to allow the windows to be opened from inside.

• The mesh is also aligned to reduce solar gain, and cut down glare where students are
working at computers.

• Natural ventilation forms part of the building’s environmental strategy, which

includes the use of geothermal energy for heating
THANK YOU
FOR
YOUR TIME