A FOREST ALLEGORY

On the town side, it is the illuminated and the mineral concrete of the forecourt welcomes the visitors. On the river side, the printed Danpalon® facade integrates with the park, without touching it, providing the reflection of trees in the Drouette valley.

“Initially, we had planned to screen-print this facade,” recalls Bernard Ritaly, Architect. “A visit to a trade show, during the design phase, allowed us to discover digital printing. This method enables us to create a facing with a more personal development, it opens up a field of possibilities that were not accessible earlier.. 

With a little imagination and fantasy, this is the solution that we have retained; at less than two metres away, the printed photo cannot be distinguished; only pixels are visible. One needs to move back from the facade to be able to understand what it represents.”

The trees printed on the Danpalon® double skin harmoniously mingle with the vertical wooden shingles, another key material of this complex.

For Bernard Ritaly, “the facades are an allegory of the forest and of the plant world. We have used untreated larch, which will gradually become tinted and in a few years from now, the entire building will be naturally grey. The pattern will not move.”