Description
A new building including production, storage, packaging and distribution areas was to be built for one of the largest and most important French printers. Situated out-of-the-way on the outskirts of Paris, the building of the Imprimerie Nationale in Bondoufle rises like a large aluminum ocean liner out of the agricultural landscape.
The complex consists of two large building parts, a production plant on one side and a representative administration wing on the other. A generously spaced glazed gallery links both parts. The production area comprises four parallel bays; the length of the rotation presses predetermines their length of 70 m each. In front of each rotation press there is a storage area for paper rolls and, in the back, an area for cutting, packaging, and distribution. To the east, a narrow two-storey wing is attached to the production halls like an individual building. It accommodates administrative offices and meeting rooms and rooms for the offset preparation and photogravure printing process.
The production plant rests on a 60 cm thick reinforced concrete slab foundation. Steel trusses supported by concrete columns span it lengthwise. The entire building infrastructure and ductwork run along these complex trusses. Light from the north reaches all areas of the hall through arched saw-tooth roofs above the trusses. The interior surface of the insulated façade is clad with perforated metal sheets for acoustic protection.
The slightly curved northern façade is generously glazed, making the exhibition gallery visible from the outside. To the south, the façade is completely solid and a canopy highlighting the main entrance is the only feature. The west façade is characterized by the loading ramps for distribution of the final products. The façade has been designed in such a way that more rotation presses can be added to the existing production machinery if required. The production plant has a cladding of large horizontal aluminum panels, while the administration wing has a post-and-beam façade also made of aluminum. A dense green verge surrounds the building complex.
Drawings
Site plan
Ground floor
Floor plan diagram
Cross section
Longitudinal section
Photos
Exterior view of the aluminimum-clad printers building complex
Interior view of post-and-beam aluminum façade with views of the fields of Bondoufle
Originally published in: Jürgen Adam, Katharina Hausmann, Frank Jüttner, Industrial Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2004.