Brightly coloured stripes cover a single encounter of this bulky concrete neighborhood complex in Lille, which was made by architect Julien De Smedt to host facilities for the “3 ages of mankind” (+ slideshow).
Euralille Youth Center sits on a triangular website in the city’s Porte de Valenciennes district. Its 3 corners accommodate a 70-cradle nursery, 200-bed youth hostel and local community offices, whilst a triangular courtyard is found at its centre.
This programme is intended to assistance the city’s residents “from nursery to nursing home” said Julien De Smedt, who won a competitors to style the centre in 2011.
“The Euralille Youth Center is designed to accommodate the three ages of mankind, from birth, via adolescence, and into adulthood a volume that captures the phases of human growth,” he explained.
“A basement crematorium would have completed the lifecycle, but we recognize that this was not incorporated!” he extra.
The three corners of the creating angle up from the pavement to reveal strips of glazing, which connect with public plazas by the street.
The central courtyard functions a bed of purple gravel and a fir tree, which is developed as an area of reflection away from the hubbub of the city.
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The gravel bed is shaped like an angular spiral, mimicking the kind of the courtyard and the angular concrete staircases within.
One section of the constructing angles back from the courtyard to develop rows of terraces, while yet another segment functions a blue roof terrace that offsets the pale concrete structure.
“Our undertaking emerges from the notion of producing an urban catalyst, accommodating 3 distinct programmes on a triangular website,” stated the architect.
“By putting a system in every single stage of the triangle we offer you highest privacy even though allowing them a closeness and continuity of room, organised close to a garden, like a cloister of calm in the centre of the city.”
Within, the youth hotel functions pastel blue niches that include lockers and seating regions, while the office has a reception furnished with metal tables and chairs.
JDS has also just lately completed a hump-shaped home in the Jura mountains, which is covered by a blanket of grass. Other tasks include a Seoul office and housing block featuring a facade of cube-shaped balconies.