TGI LILLE

Studio : VAN SANTEN & ASSOC.
Client : CITY OF LILLE
Architect : VAN SANTEN & ASSOC
Contractor : OLIVIER
Location : LILLE, FRANCE
Reference: more info…

(Article extract from VS-A Index II pp.54-55)

Jean Willerval was a visionary architect who has not always been loved by the people of Lille, given the impact of his work during the era of their construction between 1960 and 1980. The Lille Courthouse, his first work of national stature, is no exception. This is because of its function, its location in the centre of Vieux-Lille, its imposing concrete-panel prefabricated walls, its status as a high-rise building, as well as its electric light bulbs which were placed too high for easy replacements without significantly increasing its operating costs.

However, this building bursts with interesting plastic features. The Brutalist materials are perfectly appropriate here. The imposing ornamental details have always characterised judicial buildings, and its details were perfectly designed and often simply sublime! The small 100m-wide ventilation shafts in polished anodised aluminium, the alabaster columns, the bronze gutters: it is all a pure delight for us as lovers of details!

The issue that brought us to look at this building was the curtain wall of the concourse. It was designed by Pilkington and was made from tempered glass suspended at the corners , and hanged one over the other until the highest one, which is held mechanically. It is a system that is quite similar to the greenhouses in the Parc de la Villette, constructed some fifteen years later by Peter Rice. Each thread is stabilised by a pair of glass cantilevered mullions, placed perpendicular to the glass. One is fixed to the ground, the other to the ceiling. All of this is extremely sophisticated and confirms the architect’s avant-garde nature.

However, some faulty details do let this work down. Including glazing that smashes regularly. A competition was organised and we were declared the winners.

Our project responded to two of the project’s main constraints: firstly to maintain a traditional style as expressed by the client, and secondly to have a tailor-made response with raw materials and maximum transparency due to its location. Our proposal was a glass curtain wall with full-height mullions that were as thin as possible, which had two lateral and symmetrical grooves that acts as continuous rabbets to hold the glass. Blocks placed at the corners of the glass panes would allow a transom-free structure. The mullions were made from extruded stainless steel, with two supports at the top to act as clamps. This allowed the cross-section of the mullion to be as small as possible. The extrusion production process, which followed the Ugine-Séjournet process (French patent from 1941) gave the profiles a surface finish similar to laminated profiles. The initially planned stretching of the metal is in fact pointless, as the straightness of the profiles is wholly satisfactory. The compactness of the profile had one major disadvantage: its mass required 3 profiles wielded together. The wielding was carried out on the construction site and required 4 hours of intermittent work.

The site did not present any particular problems, except the destruction of the existing façade. Its unpredictable nature meant that we had to resort to demolition by explosives! 10 tonnes of glass exploded on a Sunday morning at the Courthouse in Lille. This motivated us all to reconstruct the new façade quickly. It is best not to make enemies in these places.