Rossignol world headquarters

AN ARCHITECTURE THAT PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE MOUNTAINS

Hérault Arnod architectures as Architects

AN ARCHITECTURE THAT PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE MOUNTAINS The image of Rossignol, a historic leader in the world of skiing, is intimately linked with the mountains and with snow. The project for its worldwide headquarters has nothing to do with the stereotypical office building, but is in harmony with nature and the peaks, and at the same time with technology, which is inseparable from high-level sport. The plot stands in the middle of a plain surrounded by mountains. It is a stretch of former farmland, marshy and perfectly flat, bounded on the northern side by the Lyon/Grenoble motorway.


The architecture has been designed specifically for Rossignol, a fusion of the company’s functional and imaginative aspects, in a radical and minimalist form: it is inspired by board sports, by fluidity of motion, and also by reliefs, snow and glacier sculpted by the elements. The roof, which envelops the whole project, is a topography in osmosis with the landscape. Its organic, timber-clad shape echoes the profile of the mountains that surround the site. The company needed to create the “home of Rossignol”, a place to unite the different entities that had spread across the country as the company grew.


The roof covers three types of space: - The racing ski production workshop, the brand’s technological showcase, and technical areas, all grouped alongside the motorway. - The street, a bright and spectacular space of social encounter, which runs through the building from side to side. At its end, the street widens to morph into the showroom. - The office floors, which include the administrative and sales departments, R&D, the design depart ment, etc. On the motorway side, the facade creates a kinetic and dynamic effect, curving upwards to form a roof over the workshops and then on to the apex, before descending again on the southwestern side to cover the office area. It is then broken up with shale-paved patios planted with magnolias, so that nature and building overlap in an interplay of transparencies.


The irregular profile of the roof and office facades leave the opportunity for future extensions as required. Additions can be built without disrupting the balance and identity of the project. From the start, the architecture embodies its own growth process. The roof ridge, with a glasshouse running along it, is positioned above the street, an elevated space giving onto the “high-altitude restaurant”, the highest point of the structure, a reminder of ski slope restaurants. Inside, the building functions like a “hive” in which the different activities intersect and communicate. The originality of the programme is that it unites very different functions, from production to services, under a single roof. The aim of this assembly is to create a global synergy which prevents barriers between design, service and technology. Each person in their diversity – engineer, designer, technician, secretary, salesman, etc. – meets in reciprocal encounter.


To encourage this internal communication, social spaces are distributed around the building. The restaurant, situated right at the top and at the centre of gravity of the street, is designed as the primary nucleus of company life: two great glasshouses divide up the panoramic views to the sky and the mountains, on one side to the Vercors and on the other to the Chartreuse. A large roof terrace is provided for alfresco lunching, protected from the noise of the motorway. Only two materials are used for the external envelope: wood (natural larch) and glass.


The structure is made of steel, like an organic skeleton that outlines the shape with its many warped surfaces. The roof frame is visible in the workshop and offices. The post and beam frame of the service floors spans distances of 12 to 16 metres to leave the space as free as possible. The workshop space has a primary horizontal roof overlaid by the timber over-roof, creating a hidden space between the two which contains all the technical systems and machinery. This means that no technical components are visible from the outside – the exterior form is unblemished.

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