The challenge of this project was the design of a city hall that outsmarts institutional building codes by creating a separate public space and thereby punctuating the new downtown of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande. With its two squares, its abstract facades adorned with perforated steel sheets, the building imposes a unitary and contemporary image that interacts with each bordering street and thus contributes to the area’s sense of liveliness. The building avoids the pitfall of monumental gestures as a way to embody a sense of power and it responds to the client’s preference for a modest, functional town hall. It makes eminent sense in the everyday life of citizens. To overcome the difficulty of occupying an excessively large plot with few resources, the choice of compactness was made, while expanding the initial programme. The town hall is more than just a building; it is also a square that extends the building to become a space that everyone can appropriate. It is a catalyst for exchange. The building is an urban landmark that intuitively invites users to enter the interior spaces.

Although it is in line with the architectural history of town halls, the project differs from it in its contemporaneity and the desire to use certain recurring typological elements in a purified version - such as the square or the mayor's gallery.

The building and square tend towards abstraction. This undoes the sense of scale and amends the traditional modes of representation to propose a new, more implied narrative. Far from being overbearing and tainted with a sense of superiority, power here is instead embodied in a way that is much more accessible to the citizenry. The architecture defers to the public space, but at the same time, the city hall remains a place of work that provides services to the population efficiently. The clarity of the interior volumes is reinforced by the legibility of the circulation from one office to another, resulting in a sense of spatial fluidity. The considerable presence of wood creates a warm atmosphere. The double-height hall is the heart of the building. It welcomes the public and it also connects to the upper square, which is in direct relation to the town council room and the marriage room situated on the first floor. During a ceremony or a meeting, its independent access facilitates the management of the flow while offering an outdoor reception area to the participants. The top floor holds the administrative offices as well as the mayor’s office, which has a loggia that looks out over the town hall square.

The presence of large windows, such as the one that opens onto the planted hedge - which has been deliberately preserved - the patio or the central atrium, provide natural light and establish a strong relationship between the building and its urban environment. Thin and light, a steel sheet façade completes a first layer meeting thermal performance requirements. The first skin acts as a solar filter, creating a visual penetration effect; at night, its porosity reveals the building through transparency. The perforation amount of the shutters have been adjusted according to the orientation, optimising natural lighting and protecting from the sun. With precision and elegance, the town hall combines domesticity and territoriality, becoming a symbolic support of the city, even before it embodies the arcanes of power.

Client: City of Saint Jacques de la Lande / Cost: € 5.7M excl. VAT / Surface: 2550 m² / Schedule: 2010 – 2016 / Team: Franck Boutté (HEQ), LBE (M.E.P.), Batiserf Ingénierie (Structure), BMF (Surveyor), Lamoureux (Acoustic)