ReviewTexaa®

# 2

Editorial

Colour, Acoustics and Architecture

Texaa® designs, develops and produces acoustic materials for use in architecture. What makes our products unique is that they are covered in a sound transparent textile which lets sound pass through. The textile in question is called Aeria, and its highly specific knit, substance and texture, perfected down the decades, have made it the cornerstone of Texaa® ’s expertise.

The first issue of our Review explored the intimate connections between textiles and architecture. This issue explores the question of colour. Our Aeria textile is, first and foremost, a question of colour, or rather a range of colours, brought together in meaningful harmony, and designed to complement a wide range of architectural contexts.

We are all sensitive to how colour transforms our perception of space, bringing a sense of added depth to a flat surface or, on the contrary, smoothing away rises and falls. Proof if any were needed of colour’s extraordinary spatial power.

Colour is also a key element of our sensorial existence, affecting our feelings and emotions, triggering desire or creating a certain mood… Some colours are seen as tranquil, others energetic. And colour is essential to our understanding of aesthetic beauty.

Colour is also the reflection of its time. The bonds between colour and architecture have been the subject of heated debate since the early years of the twentieth century. Colour is part of history, intimately linked to questions of tradition and custom, of fashion or design. It is a faithful mirror to the spirit of the age.

It is our desire at Texaa® to further fuel the history of architecture by examining the intimate ties linking colour to acoustics and this from the vantage point of our own specific role, at the service of the creative minds from which architecture is born.

Contents

On the Agenda 6 In Conversation

From the European Architecture Days, 2014

16 Our Colour Range ‘Couleurs’

Zooming in 22 Colour and Architecture

Landmarks in a Century of Debate

Landmarks32 L’Aubette

Theo van Doesburg, Strasbourg, 1928

Historical Perspectives40 The Commission Rooms

at the Palace of Europe Henry Bernard, Strasbourg, 1977

Case Studies50 Swiss life, Lyon

56 Lycée Technique de Mersch, Luxembourg

60 Hôtel de la Région Auvergne

64 Insead, Fontainebleau

68 Maison des Arts de Saint-Herblain

72 Photo Album

On the Agenda

In Conversation—For almost four decades now, Texaa® has forged its way ahead with little regard for the beaten track. The company was invited to participate in the 2014 European Architecture Days organised on the theme of ‘The 1001 Colours of Architecture’ and held at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg.1 Some of the people who have played a key role in Texaa® ’s history explained how an industrial adventure rooted in pure intuition first came into being, shedding light on the guiding principles underlying the firm’s approach and on encounters which have brought its ideas to fruition. The alchemy born from sheer tenacity and a perviousness to the spirit of the age, a desire at once to embrace but also resist the world, is far subtler than at first meets the eye…

8 9On the Agenda In Conversation ‘The 1001Colours of Architecture’

On 4th October 2014, Texaa® was represented by Matthieu Demptos, company director, Grégoire Comby, sales manager, and Christine Bernos, architect and Texaa® ’s colour designer. Marie Bruneau, a graphic designer 2 who has worked as communication advisor for Texaa® down the years, led the discussion on the bonds between textiles, acoustics and architecture, three worlds explored here through the prism of colour.

Marie Bruneau: Good evening. I would like to begin by saying that Texaa®, spelled with a double ‘a’ at the end, has no relation whatsoever with either the US State of Texas, which ends with an ‘s’, or the film Paris Texas by Wim Wenders—all the more so as our production workshops are situated in the outskirts of Bordeaux. In fact Texaa® is an acronym, pronounced like an ordinary common noun, rather than spelling out each letter. It stands for textiles, acoustics and architecture. For those who have never heard of the company, here is what its internet site has to say—‘Texaa® designs, develops and produces panels, fabric hangings and objects capable of enhancing the acoustic comfort of a huge array of interior spaces. Composed of a sound absorbing foam clad in a sound transparent textile covering available in a range of 24 colours, Texaa® products are knitted and assembled near Bordeaux in France.’ 3 This evening we would like to retrace the company’s history with you, and look more closely at the specific role colour has to play. Let’s begin with the company director, Matthieu Demptos, could you tell us a little more about Texaa®, beginning at the beginning perhaps, with the word ‘textile.’

Matthieu Demptos: Originally, the company was called Fatexaa, which stood for ‘Fabrique de textiles aérés et ajourés.’ Basically, Fatexaa produced a knitted textile with a very open stitch used to make sandals, bags and beach shoes, the sort of thing you can buy on markets in the summer. The story goes that some acousticians chanced upon these products one day, and it dawned on them that this very ‘open’ sort of textile, thereby sound transparent, might be effective if placed in front of a sound absorbing foam. Our first experiments in the field of acoustics were born from this moment of sheer intuition. Fatexaa however, despite its prosperous past, did not have the legs to withstand the crisis which hit the textile industry and when my father bought it in the late 1970s, it was on the verge of collapse. He took the decision to abandon the sandal and bag production and focus solely on architectural acoustics, a rapidly emerging field at that time. This explains why the name of the company evolved, redefining the double ‘a’ at the end of Texaa® as ‘acoustic’ and ‘architecture.’

Initially, foam and textile were simply ‘stuck’ or laminated together. Since then, we have developed a rather more sophisticated range of techniques, such as removable covers which clad the sound absorbing foam in the form of panels or other three-dimensional objects, together with a range of hanging fabrics.

In our workshops today, we have two knitting machines on which we produce a fabric in a specific stitch, chosen for its form and sound-transparent

qualities. This fabric has evolved down the years as those characteristics have been refined, influencing how the textile may be used in association with different foams or felts. This textile is Aeria, and it is our hallmark. The unique qualities (and I measure my words) of this product have enabled us to develop the wide range of acoustic solutions at our disposal today.

Marie Bruneau: Yes, when you take hold of a piece of Aeria, it’s immediately clear that it has highly individual properties, and that, as a fabric, it is at once extremely simple and highly technically sophisticated…

Matthieu Demptos: All of our products are covered in Aeria—at least they are today—and Aeria is used only on Texaa® products—we don’t supply the fabric to anyone else. The fabric’s highly individual texture, immediately characterful but also discreet once one has taken a step back, is the result of painstaking technical and aesthetic research. Our aim was to produce a knitted fabric that would be easy on the eye, even over large surface areas, at a time when just about everybody was fed up with using textile products in interior design. The systematic use of yard after yard of fitted carpet or fabric wall coverings has left the most ghastly legacy… For thirty years now, we have strived to perfect the knit and texture of our fabrics, an on-going subject of enquiry and experimentation for us today, not always perceptibly so, but most definitely on-going all the same. The first issue of our Review, which came out last year, was indeed devoted to the question of textiles and their role in architecture.

The perfection of our knitted textile is the most visible part of our research, but what really makes us unique—and has earned us an exclusive patent— is the alchemy born from the materials we use and the way in which we use them. This means that our products by far surpass regulatory standards both in France and abroad, particularly in terms of fire resistance and durability. Today, when we remove fabrics fitted some twenty-five years ago, there is no deterioration, either in terms of fire resistance, acoustic efficacy or mechanical performance.

Marie Bruneau: Grégoire Comby, you are head of sales at Texaa® and as such have played an active role in how the product range has evolved down the years. You are part of Texaa® ’s history. Could you enlighten us as to how the company progressed from those early days of ‘do-it-yourself’ experimentation to the development of acoustic materials specifically designed for architectural purposes like those in use today?

Grégoire Comby: Initially, Texaa® ’s products mainly interested acousticians, thanks to their high level of efficacy in terms of acoustic correction. At that time, we saw everything from the point of view of technical performance, and such matters as design, colour or texture were put to one side. We became experts in a highly specific market—that of equipping spaces with extremely demanding acoustic requirements, like recording studios, cinema theatres or concert halls, in other words places where acoustics take pride of place. One of our first major projects concerned the recording studios of the Maison de la Radio in Paris, and, believe it or not, another early undertaking was situated not a

10 11

stone’s throw away from where we are today, in Strasbourg. We fitted our first generation of acoustic textile coverings to the walls of the twelve commission rooms at the Palace of Europe, home to the Council of Europe, back in… 1977! Some 37 years ago. The question of acoustic performance is the bedrock of Texaa® ’s ventures and is still the beating heart of our approach today. It was the acousticians—well, some of them, anyway—who then encouraged us to address a further series of more inherently architectural concerns. Jean-Paul Lamoureux, for example, played a key role in Texaa® ’s story. He’s passionate about architecture and was one of the first professionals to make architects sit up and take an interest in the question of acoustics. In those days, architects weren’t really bothered by this question—or if they were, they addressed it unwillingly, as one more additional constraint. In their defence, the technical solutions at their disposal were emphatic, if not to say downright overpowering. For them, integrating a sound absorbent material into architectural design was almost impossible to imagine… and as for the idea of an architect calling upon the specialist services of an acoustician, well there was really no question of that! This is no longer the case today, but until a couple of years ago, architects capable of distinguishing between sound absorption and sound-proofing were few and far between. Our products are sound absorbing. They may be used within a volume to improve acoustic comfort by correcting the effects of sound reverberation. From the acoustic point of view, our products demonstrated a very high level of technical performance from the outset, but were not quite ready for integration into high quality architectural designs. We listened carefully to the architects’ needs and we’ve been sensitive to evolutions in interior acoustic problems. This has gradually led us to take aesthetic questions into account, most notably that of colour. We first needed to lend our products a rather more discreet voice and then work on developing a range of solutions capable of accompanying the architect at the drawing board.

Marie Bruneau: How would you describe the relations you entertain with architects today?

Grégoire Comby: The daily basis of our work is understanding the questions architects put to us, as a means of devising solutions which best correspond to their projects and constraints, also in terms of cost. We see our products as an acoustic material for use in given volumes, along with a toolbox of technical solutions for the implementation of that material. Sometimes, in light of a project’s specific requirements, our solution has to be tailor-made, and produced in a specific colour, for example. We endeavour to accompany the architect onto the building site, through to the project’s completion. Given the meticulous care we put into each stage of product production, we know just how important it is to maintain the highest level of precision in how those products are fitted. This attention to detail means we can now rely on a team of people who are much more than mere ‘sales reps’, but who are true professionals, together

with a network of specialist ‘fitters’ who are familiar with our products and know how to implement them.

Marie Bruneau: Matthieu, would you like to say something, perhaps, about how or in what ways the singular relationship that Texaa® entertains with architects, and your company’s involvement in their projects, have influenced the ways in which the product range has evolved?

Matthieu Demptos: Our relationship with prescribers i.e. architects, interior designers, acousticians and sometimes even some businesses in the building trade, has been forged through the work done by people like Grégoire, often referred to rather simplistically as ‘sales reps’. In reality, they are the company’s life force. The role they play lies at the interface between what lies inside and outside Texaa®, with internal design processes, fabric development and production on one hand, and projects, building sites, prescribers, fitters and project managers in the outside world on the other. Originally, Texaa® merely fitted square yard after square yard of textile to reduce the echo produced by certain surfaces. This was rather repetitive, to put it lightly, and the architects themselves, bored with the same old same old, forced us into thinking up alternative ways and means. Technical advances made in the field of absorbing foam have encouraged us to think outside the box. Rather than trying to cover surfaces in their entirety, we intensified the active principle of our products, as a means of using less material to obtain an equivalent level of acoustic remediation. We equipped ourselves with an echo chamber to test our hypotheses and came up with the idea of lifting the sound absorbing material away from the surface of the walls and ceilings. This gave birth to what we refer to as ‘acoustic solutions through objects’, of which Texaa® is a pioneer. The word ‘object’ necessarily rhymes with ‘design’. Our products were objects intended for use within defined volumes, and their shape and colour thus came to the forefront. At Texaa®, however, we are neither designers nor colourists! So we relied on pre-existing partnerships with specialists in the field, like architect Alain Triaud, who designed our workshops in Bordeaux (Agence LAH /AT 4) and Christine Bernos, who works with Alain and who accepted to look at our colour range. We also called upon the skill and inspiration of two designers, Guillaume Martin and Michaël Damen, from Agence k_now. 5

Marie Bruneau: Earlier, I remarked that Aeria was at once an extremely simple and also technically sophisticated fabric. Perhaps I should have added that it is primarily a colour. We are not talking about paint here, or wallpaper or some form of tapestry, but a material that is coloured the whole way through, ‘dyed in the wool’, so to speak. As the fabric is knitted from dyed thread, the colour of the finished product is infused from the very start.

Grégoire Comby

On the Agenda In Conversation ‘The 1001Colours of Architecture’

12 13

Christine Bernos, you are the person who has initiated and guided Texaa® in the company’s reflection on the question of colour. You are currently putting the finishing touches to a new colour range for 2015, so could you tell us something about your approach, both as an architect and colour specialist?

Christine Bernos: For me, there is a clear distinction between my relation to colour in my work as an architect and my approach when I’m working on a colour range for Texaa® products. I work for an architecture agency and, as is often the case in French architecture today, there’s a certain faint-heartedness about using colour. In this sense, I’m something of a free electron. I like colour and I like using it, especially in interior design. My stance when I’m working for Texaa® is slightly different—I’m not working as an architect but for architects, interior designers or project managers, in other words, for people whose role it is to choose materials and who need an efficient instrument for making those choices in terms of colour. That instrument is the colour range, and it functions as a glossary or repertoire of 22 colours.

Marie Bruneau: 22 colours, is that a lot, or few?

Christine Bernos: Yes of course, the range has a limit, and that was something which initially concerned me! I soon learnt to address this question in exactly the same way I would an architectural project, meaning that there are rules one cannot overlook, and pre-requisites to be respected. You have to learn to work within the defined limits. If the colour range had only 5, or 24 or even a 100 colours in it, the work would be slightly different, but the basic question would still be the same. Working within a set of constraints is part of the project and may be used as a stimulus and source of inspiration for forging links between each element of the whole… and also of explaining the way things are. I am an architect and not a colour theoretician—my work is guided by my feelings. Creating a colour range implies that each colour be envisaged as potentially stimulating for architectural design, alone or in combination with other colours. In this I adopt a two-fold stance. First, I defend the idea of a fairly large gradation of nuanced shades, for the greys in particular. Second, I voice the presence of colour per se, with a range of strong colours which may be used in ‘touches’, to liven up or redefine an all too impersonal atmosphere.

Marie Bruneau: You refer to your work as a long-term, on-going process. I’m sure the way you see things has evolved down the years, and perhaps the same is true for the way you approach your work?

Christine Bernos: Well, practice has made perfect over the last fifteen years! My first idea was that the company should abandon certain shades which for me are ‘non-colours’, in other words, shades you might fall back on when you really don’t know what to choose—I’m thinking more specifically here of certain shades of beige and very neutral greys. I wanted a far more colourful and lively range to accompany the new product designs, especially the first acoustic objects, cones or cubes

etc. Later, I turned to a more ‘natural’ feel, with a base range of greys—some of which are tinted, others not—in association with bright colours. What is so exciting in the work I do with Texaa® is that colour and material go hand in hand. Down the years, the finished effect of the textile Texaa® produces and its texture have evolved. The stitch used has changed, so has the density of the fabric, and this has been the means of bringing real colours, conveying real values, into play… and I still haven’t said my last word!

Marie Bruneau: How do you decide when the time is right to make adjustments to certain colours in a given range?

Christine Bernos: I’m a keen follower of fashion, design, cinema… I’m interested in everything going on around me. And yet we don’t release a new collection for each season, as they do in the fashion industry. Ours has to last several years! I clearly remember my first colour range—my main worry was how to choose colours that would stand the test of time, for 3 or 4 years in succession… For me, each new colour range is a whole. I begin by including variations on the primary colours—reds, greens, blues, yellows, while continuing to work on a meaningful palette of greys which are simple and elegant to use—neutral, if you like. I don’t, however, necessarily change all the colours when a range comes up for renewal. The overriding constraint - maintaining a sense of renewed coherence—is always the same, but experienced anew… I don’t believe that there are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ colours. All choices, all tastes are possible. Each colour exists, in its own right, but becomes interesting if it is declined into related hues or a gradation of shades, or if it is thrown into contrast with other colours. The shades of orange in the new range, for example, work very well in association with one of the greys, but also with the greens or purples… This is exactly what I’m trying to do, create a range which is dynamic, governed by a sense of unity but providing the possibility of creating a diverse variety of associations. Nor should we forget that Texaa® ’s products are exclusively designed for interior spaces. In any given room, there is a floor, walls, furnishings and a range of different materials, each possessing their own character and colour—concrete, glass, different types of wood etc. A colour range must provide the possibility of creating connections, little matter whether they be refined or brazen, subtle or provocative, with the materials already in situ. I’m always excited to discover how other architects will have played on the possibilities offered to them by the colours in the Texaa® range, and I’m often absolutely delighted with the results. What reassures me is that if an individual architect is frustrated by the colour choices on offer, then Texaa® will happily create a given product in a colour not in the range. Not that there have been many examples of that actually happening, down the years.

On the Agenda In Conversation ‘The 1001Colours of Architecture’

Marie Bruneau

14 15

Marie Bruneau: Might we return for a moment to the title of our conversation today, ‘Colour, Acoustics, Architecture’—how do these terms interrelate for you? As an architect, how would you define the bonds linking colour to architecture?

Christine Bernos: Colour for me is synonymous with spatiality. It has the power to unite, separate, integrate elements… make something disappear, or, on the contrary, accentuate or underscore its presence. Colour gives things a sense of depth, but can also flatten a surface or throw it into relief. Colour is inseparably bound with light in our perception of space and as such is essential to architecture.

Marie Bruneau: And what about the links between colour and acoustics?

Matthieu Demptos: That is more a matter of sensory perception, of the overall feeling we associate with a given place. The unconscious mind blends such characteristics as colour, sound or volume together. When, for example, we intervene to reduce the level of echo in a space which is already operational, we cannot overlook the plastic dimension of the whole, because introducing a textile element into a building is an act of some significance, calling each of our senses into play. We might wish to accentuate the perceived level of comfort, if, for instance, the zone being treated is isolated from a noisier area, or, on the contrary, we might aim for maximum discretion, delicately improving the atmosphere of a given space in its entirety. This is not about applying greasepaint, but redefining the fundamental characteristics of a space to befit its future use.

Marie Bruneau: I think our time together is coming to an end, but before we part, I would like to introduce a little pun and say perhaps that at Texaa®, acoustic comfort and colour are inseparably ‘stitched up’. In other words, the underlying ambition of the company is to bring both elements into play simultaneously, through acoustic tools at the service of an architectural project. One might argue that Texaa® ’s materials and products each have an acoustic dimension, a colour dimension and an architectural dimension, the aim being to enable designers not only to treat the question of acoustic comfort, but also define and build colourful spaces for us to work, live and play in, shaping space through form, matter and colour. Many thanks to you all.

1. European Architecture Days are organised each year by the Maison Européenne de l’Architecture—Rhin Supérieur, in Alsace, in the Bade-Wurtemberg and Basel regions. http://www.ja-at.eu

2. http://www.pressepapier.fr

3. http://www.texaa.com

4. http://www.lahat-architectes.com/fr/projets-date.html#projet-51

5. http://www.k-nowdesign.com

On the Agenda In Conversation ‘The 1001 Colours of Architecture’

On the Agenda

Our Colour Range ‘Couleurs’—Christine Bernos, architect and colourist, spent the months between March and November 2014 reworking the Aeria colour range, from her first tentative intuitions through to the final phase of validation. The 22 colours selected unfold in gradated shades of grey, beige and brown, not forgetting the reds, greens and blues. The key words underpinning this selection process are sensitivity, technicality and durability, and the colours chosen are an expression of the spirit of our age, giving each and every individual the possibility of using them in free association, with enthusiastic exuberance or elegant restraint.

18 19

Our new colour range reflects the changing world around us, in tune with new ways of seeing and looking. New harmonies suddenly emerge and colour combinations of yesteryear are revived… Christine Bernos has her sensitive finger on the pulse of these subtle changes in mood and taste. But she plays the waiting game. Designing a new colour range is not about upsetting the status quo just for the sake of it. Rather, she introduces change through infinitesimal adjustments, brought with meticulous care to the existing palette, and thereby unleashing new potential and fresh images.

From the first stages of tentative intuition to the final phase of validation…

29th March– work in progress – seeking new atmospheres, new shades, new mixes and matches

On the Agenda Our Colour Range ‘Couleurs’

2nd September – the first hypothetical colour ranges and skeins of thread, dyed in the new shades– colours past and present rub shoulders…– knitting a sock in each potential colour is a good way of getting things right

before full-scale testing using Aeria

20 21On the Agenda Our Colour Range ‘Couleurs’

6th November– all the colour choices for the new range have finally been determined – sizing gives the textile its finished appearance– a few final hesitations as to the order in which to present

the colours in the new textile colour book

Zooming in

Colour and Architecture—Colour comes from the earth beneath our feet. Already in pre-historic times, man used the ochres and black manganese of the land, along with charcoal and red chalk, to paint frescos across the walls of the caves he inhabited. Later, he would use milk of lime to whitewash the walls of his home, together with a whole host of renderings, pigments, dyes, paints and colourings… As for the complex history of the bonds between colour and architecture, the subject of our musings here, they go no further back than the beginning of the twentieth century. Rejection of ornament in architecture was followed by a reappraisal of the question of colour, and the advent of the Modern Movement threw architects into two camps. On one side were those in favour of colour in its most audacious expression and, on the other, advocates of an architecture that was pure and white 1.

1. Adolphe Loos, Ornament and Crime, 1908

24 25Zooming in

1.Architect Bruno Taut was a pioneer of the former school of thought. In the years following 1910, he argued that colour was an effective means of improving the city-dweller’s everyday existence. ‘We do not want to build any more joyless houses, or see them built…’ he writes. ‘Colour is not expensive like moulded decorations and sculptures, but colour means a joyful existence. As it can be provided with limited resources, we should, in the present time of need, particularly urge its use on all buildings which must now be constructed.’ Taut called for strong colours to be used, like red, green, reddish-brown or purple and, in this vein, was commissioned to design the first vibrantly coloured garden city, Falkenberg, in Berlin. The facades of the long rows of terraced houses are painted red, olive green, brownish yellow and glossy white, thereby individualising each building and, according to Taut, helping the inhabitants feel more quickly at home. Other staunch supporters of the use of colour in architecture were the Dutch architects and painters of De Stijl, Piet Mondrian, Gerrit Rietveld, J.-J.-P. Oud and Theo van Doesburg. They used colour in delicate touches or generous swathes, both inside houses and on their exterior façades, as a means of equating the synthetic plastic processes at work in painting and architecture alike. At the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius opposed colour to the notion of ‘pure white’ as an expression of social utopia. The outside of a house should, he thought, be almost exclusively white, while the interior could play on a variation of colours. As opinion and practice differed widely among teachers at the School, the Bauhaus made surprisingly little contribution to contemporary debate on the question of colour in architecture.

J.-P.-P. Oud, Café De Unie, Rotterdam, 1925, all rights reserved

Theo van Doesburg, Cornelis van Eesteren, private dwelling, axonometric projection, 1923, all rights reserved

Walter Gropius, Vassily Kandinsky, staircase in a house for the Bauhaus

teachers, Dessau, 1926, all rights reserved

Bruno Taut, Hufeisensiedlung (1925–1933), brightly coloured doorways, 2013

Gerrit Rietveld, Rietveld-Shröder House, 1924, all rights reserved

Colour and Architecture

26 27Zooming in

Weissenhofsiedlung, Stuttgart, 1927, all rights reserved

Mies van der Rohe, Villa Tughendhat, Brno, 1930, all rights reserved

Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Passy, 1928–1931, all rights reserved

2. The Weissenhofsiedlung is a housing estate built by seventeen architects from the European avant-garde in Stuttgart, 1927, under the artistic direction of Mies van der Rohe. Its success made it a showcase for what would later come to be known as Modern Architecture. Mies van der Rohe laid down few restrictions on his colleagues, except that each building should be cubic in shape, possess a roof terrace and be painted in pale colours. Apart from designs submitted by Le Corbusier and Bruno Taut, all the houses were white and the Weissenhofsiedlung was subsequently referred to as ‘New Jerusalem’ by extremist anti-semitic groups.

3. Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Philip Johnson, The Inter national Style, 1932. Reprinted, Norton and Company, New York, 1995, p. 87

3.Mies van der Rohe is commonly considered to be colour’s most staunch opponent, as if the diktat of ‘white modernity’ stemmed from him and him alone. Yet the reality of the situation is undeniably more complex—there is nothing ‘pure white’ about the German pavilion he designed for the International Exhibition in Barcelona of 1929, in which glass, steel and no less than four different types of coloured stone (travertine from Rome, green marble from the Alps, green marble from Greece and golden onyx from the Atlas) bathe the building in colour. Nor is there anything pristine about Farnsworth House (1946–1951), built in glass and steel as an icon of Modern architecture. That would be forgetting the colour introduced by the two slabs of wood inside the building. Mies van der Rohe used white as a means of preserving the full strength of his materials, in a way reminiscent of the ‘organic’ school of architecture encapsulated in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, in which the materials are allowed to freely voice their inherent nature, an idea widely revisited in architecture today

Colour and Architecture

4.Having first supported the idea that Modern architecture should be white, Le Corbusier also went on to nuance his ideas. ‘The interior of the house should be white’, he wrote of the Villa Laroche, ‘but for this whiteness to be appreciated, it must be set off by the use of a well-regulated palette of colours.’ 4

As for the ‘Quartiers Modernes Frugès’ housing development built in Pessac (1923-1925), he speaks in terms of ‘an entirely new conception of polychromy, at the service of a clearly architectural objective, that of shaping space through the very physics of colour, bringing certain volumes to the forefront while effacing others, in other words, designing buildings through colour, as we have hitherto done so with shapes. This is how architecture shall come to be a part of urban design.’ In 1931, Le Corbusier was working on a collection of wall coverings for a company based in Basel called Salubra, and colour was top on his agenda. ‘We will call upon the painters to make any wall standing in our way disappear. Architectural polychromy will possess the wall entirely, endowing it with the power of blood, the freshness of the meadow, the brilliance of the sun or the depth of the sea or sky. Its power is boundless! If a wall is blue, it fades into the distance; if it is red, it stands its ground… Architectural polychromy does not kill the wall, but has the power to move or remove it, to class volumes according to importance. With polychromy, the skilful architect has before him an endless bounty of resources. Polychromy belongs to the great living architecture of today and tomorrow. [...] Polychromy is an architectural technique as powerful as the ground plan or section. Better than that, polychromy is itself an element of the plan and section.’

2.Along with the new precedence given to colour, an idea emerged that truly New architecture must be white, an idea which gradually gained ground and imposed itself with the Weissenhof exhibition held in 1927 in Stuttgart, and for which a full set of houses was built by seventeen architects from the European avant-garde, under the artistic direction of Mies van der Rohe 2. Le Corbusier’s white period (Villa Savoye), Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tughendhat and Loos’s houses all reflect this trend. Yet it was undoubtedly Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson who most eloquently imposed the equation White = Modern voiced by International Style at the Modern Architecture exhibition held at the MoMa in New York in 1932. In the catalogue to the exhibition, they write, ‘Also in the use of colour the general rule is restraint. [...] The earlier use of bright color had value in attracting attention to the new style, but it could not long remain pleasing. It ceased to startle and began to bore; its mechanical sharpness and freshness became rapidly tawdry. If architecture is not to resemble billboards, color should be technically and psychologically permanent.’ 3

Mies van der Rohe, German Pavilion, Barcelona, 1929, all rights reserved

Mies van der Rohe, Farnsworth House, Illinois, 1946–1951, all rights reserved

4. Le Corbusier, Complete Works

Le Corbusier, ‘Quartiers Modernes Frugès’ housing development, Pessac, 1923–1926, all rights reserved

28 29 Colour and ArchitectureZooming in

5.In the wake of the Second World War, Europe was faced with a vast reconstruction crisis. Raw concrete was often used and the debate on colour was set aside. In the 1950s, a certain form of international architecture was prevalent to the point of excess, and became the butt of post-modernist criticism in the mid-1960s. This gave way to a revival of past forms (with columns, pediments etc.), marking a difference with the minimalist simplicity of International Style through the use of colour, as illustrated by the Schützenstrasse district built by Aldo Rossi in Berlin (1994–1998). From Disney to Dubai, kitsch is never far away… and yet, white continues to stand the test of time. Some architects, like Richard Meier, have made it their hallmark. Photos of Meier’s first designs (Smith House, 1967, Douglas House, 1973) highlight the startling contrast between the pristine white walls and surrounding natural environment. Meier is resolute to the last and even his most recent buildings are unambiguously white.

Richard Meier, Smith House, 1967, all rights reserved

Aldo Rossi, Schützenstrasse district, Berlin, 1994–1998, all rights reserved

Arata Isozaki, Disney Building, Orlando, Florida, 1990, all rights reserved

6.In 1977, when the Centre Georges Pompidou was built, with its internal skeleton and brightly coloured innards of pipes, tubes and ducts splashed across its facade for all to see, it cut a lonely figure against the grey backdrop of Parisian rooftops. It triggered a furore the vehemence of which would be difficult to imagine today—Our Lady of Plumbing, Pompidoleum, art warehouse, gasworks, oil refinery, avant-garde blot on the landscape… there was no lack of ironical epithets. While it was the architects’ decision to reveal the normally hidden inner workings of the building which attracted the most criticism, the bright colours used to draw attention to this choice were feverishly decried. Few people know that the initial design used a harmonious union of brown and light blue, the colours of the earth and sky. It was only when a counter-proposition set forward by artist Jean Dewasne won over architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers that bright colours were integrated into the final mock-up for the building presented in 1973 5. The colours are most clearly visible across the building’s east façade, enabling the onlooker to identify the different function of each ‘pipe’—green for water, blue for air, yellow for electricity and red for the lifts, freight hoists and escalators.

5. ‘I explained why I thought new architecture of this type should be colourful, and that strong primary colours should be used. [...] They immediately seized upon this idea and adopted it as their trademark—the Centre Pompidou would be colourful. That is how Beaubourg became my greatest work of a.n.t.i.s.c.u.l.p.t.u.r.e’, writes Jean Dewasne in a text bearing Renzo Piano’s initials, certifying the authenticity of the facts related.

Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, elevation of the front façade of the Centre Pompidou presented for the 1971 competition, all rights reserved

Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1977

30 31

6. Patrick Bouchain, Loïc Julienne, Sébastien Eymard and Sophie Ricard (architectural permanence), renovation of 60 council houses, Boulogne-sur-Mer, 2013

7. First used by the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie in Pan-African rehabilitation propaganda, these colours were made popular the world over by Rastafarianism and its foremost proponent, Robert Nesta—aka Bob Marley. Closer inspection of the national �ag of Burkina Faso shows that their use by the architect here is in no way insigni�cant—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-African_colours

7.In recent years, Patrick Bouchain has revisited ideas first put into practice by Bruno Taut, as part of a project to renovate 60 council houses in partnership with their inhabitants in Boulogne-sur-Mer. 6 In Pantin, Pierre di Sciullo breathed new colour into the three hectares of façades comprising the Serpentin building, a snake-like block of 550 housing units built by Émile Aillaud between 1956 and 1960. In Burkina Faso, Diébédo Francis Kéré has initiated a lively dialogue between adobe brick built buildings and the iconic colours of the Modern movement, also adopted by Pan-African movements. 7 And so the story continues… ‘Painting in the space-time continuum of the twentieth century allows the artist to bring about his greatest dream’ wrote Theo van Doesburg in 1928, ‘situating Man within painting, rather than in front of it.’ Colour is still an important theme today, but rarely a subject of dispute. Surely all prior theoretical discussions on the question of surface and space have been surpassed?

Patrick Bouchain, Boulogne-sur-Mer, 2013, all rights reserved

Diébédo Francis Kéré, extension of a primary school in Kando, 2008, all rights reserved

Agence RVA, architecture, Pierre di Sciullo, graphic design, Pantin, 2013–2016, all rights reserved

Colour and ArchitectureZooming in

Landmarks

L’AubetteTheo van Doesburg, Strasbourg, 1928

—The interior design of the ‘Aubette’ building in Strasbourg is often referred to as the Sistine Chapel of abstract avant-garde art between the wars. The work was completed in 1928 by Theo van Doesburg, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Hans Arp, and pays eloquent witness to the endeavours of Modernist artists working in this period to marry colour with architecture.

3534 Landmarks

‘The point is to situate man within painting, rather than in front of it.’Theo van Doesburg (Utrecht 1883–Davos 1931) was a painter, poet and art theoretician. In 1917, he founded the review De Stijl with Piet Mondrian, as a means of disseminating their ideas on aesthetic principles they referred to as Neo-Plasticism—geometric shapes, an absence of curves or diagonal lines, exclusive use of primary colours, specifically blue, red and yellow, in association with non-colours, like grey, black and white.In the early 1920s, van Doesburg temporarily gave up painting to devote himself to architecture, and more explicitly the role played by colour in building design. He worked on projects in partnership with J.-J.-P. Oud in Rotterdam, including houses in Spangen (1921) and the house of the site manager of the Cité Oud-Mathenesse (1923). He then went on to work with Cornelis van Eesteren on an ambitious project for a university building in Amsterdam (1923), never built but providing van Doesburg with the opportunity of putting his theories into practice at the drawing board. ‘We have given colour its true place in architecture’ he wrote in 1924, ‘and we declare that painting which is separate from architectural construction (that is, easel painting) has no raison d’être.’ 1

For Theo van Doesburg, colour is not, then, a mere component of interior design, but rather a spatial element in creation. ‘For new architecture, colour is incredibly important; it is a means of expression. It is thanks to colour that the volume relations sought by the architect become visible; colour completes architecture; colour is an essential element of architecture. […] It is the very material of expression, equal in value to other materials, such as stone, iron or glass.’ 2

Theo van Doesburg, project for using colour in a university hall in Amsterdam, 1923, all rights reserved

1. Doesburg / Eesteren, 1923–1924, quoted by Mathias Nosil in ‘Peindre l’Espace’, in L’Aubette ou la couleur dans l’architecture, Strasbourg, 2008

2. Theo van Doesburg, ‘La signi�cation de la couleur en architecture’, in La Cité: urbanisme, architecture, art public, vol. 4, # 10, Bruxelles, May 1924

Theo van Doesburg, all rights reserved

De Stijl # 1, cover by Vilmos Huszár, October 1917, all rights reserved

L’Aubette, Theo van Doesburg, Strasbourg, 1928

3736

StrasbourgIn the early 1920s, two brothers, Paul and André Horn—one an architect, the other a chemist—set up a real estate company together in Strasbourg and began working on a number of urban redevelopment projects. They took out a lease on the right wing of ‘L’Aubette’, a building on the corner of Place Klébert and erected in the 18th century by the military. Their plan was to redevelop the building as a place for dining and entertainment. Paul came up with an initial design for its internal reorganisation, but the brothers soon decided to call upon the services of two artists, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Hans Arp, for the interior design. The artists in turn invited Theo van Doesburg to join them, and he seized upon their offer as a means of putting the ‘synthesis of art’ advocated by De Stijl into practice. The ‘synthesis of all arts’ was a universal art form based on the effacement of individuality in artistic practice in favour of collective work. ‘Messrs Horn have invited me to Strasbourg’ writes van Doesburg, in a special issue of the review De Stijl in 1928 ‘and this has provided me with the opportunity of putting my ideas on interior design into practice on a large scale, by giving the finest rooms a Modernist make-over.’ 3

The three artists invested the different spaces available to them each in their own way, with Theo van Doesburg in charge of the overall project management and publicity. ‘As we were working together as co-directors on this project, we laid down the principle that each individual would be free to work according to his own ideas.’ 4 When L’Aubette opened as a place of entertainment in 1928, its facilities were distributed over four floors. In the basement was the American bar and vaulted dance hall, designed by Hans Arp. On the ground floor, the Café-Brasserie and restaurant owed their interior design to Theo van Doesburg, while Sophie Taeuber-Arp took responsibility for the Five-O’Clock tearooms and L’Aubette-Bar. The lavatories, cloakrooms and billiard hall, designed by Hans Arp, were positioned on the mezzanine floor. The first floor also accommodated the Cinema–Dance Hall and Function Room designed by Theo van Doesburg, while the adjoining Foyer-Bar was designed by Sophie Taeuber-Arp.

3. Theo van Doesburg, ‘Notices sur l’Aubette à Strasbourg’, in De Stijl # 8 (1928) nr. 87- 89, Aubette, Strasbourg http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Notices_sur_l’Aubette_a_Strasbourg

4. id.

5. id.

6. id.

7. id.

Landmarks

Theo van Doesburg, project for using colour in the Cinema–Dance Hall of L'Aubette, Strasbourg, 1928, all rights reserved

The Cinema–Dance HallThe layout of the hall, with its staircase and rectangular projection screen, inspired Theo van Doesburg to unfold a diagonal grid pattern of squares, rectangles and triangles in black, white, yellow, green, blue and red, across the walls and ceiling. ‘As the architectonic elements are based on an orthogonal relationship, the distribution of colours in this room had to be treated diagonally, as a counter-composition, in such a way as to withstand the architectural tension. [...] If one were to ask me what I had in mind as I was designing this room, I might well answer—opposing the three-dimensional nature of the material room with a pictorial, sur-material diagonal space.’ 5 This af�rmation of the diagonal line throws into question the aesthetic theories of Piet Mondrian’s Neo-Plasticism, which advocated the sole use of vertical and horizontal lines.

Function RoomHere Theo van Doesburg uses an exclusively orthogonal design based on a series of squares. The chromatic palette is made up of primary colours (yellow, blue and red), along with the non-colours (black and white) dear to the heart of Neo-Plasticism. Two shades of the same colour are set side by side here to create a form of dissonance. ‘As for the distribution, I used standard measures. The smallest coloured surface measures 1m20 x 1m20, while the larger areas are always a multiple of 1m20 x 1m20, plus the width of the band (30 cm).’ 6

Foyer-BarDesigned by Theo van Doesburg to link the Function Room with the Cinema-Dance Hall, the Foyer-Bar enabled visitors to watch a �lm while still being able to move around. Sophie Taeuber-Arp was the inspiration behind the rectangular blocks of red, grey, light grey and white, across the walls and ceiling. The �oor is treated similarly.

L’Aubette, Theo van Doesburg, Strasbourg, 1928

Theo van Doesburg, project for using colour on the ceiling of the Function Room of L'Aubette, Strasbourg, 1928, all rights reserved

Theo van Doesburg, the Function Room of L'Aubette, Strasbourg, 2014, all rights reserved

Sophie Taeuber-Arp., the Foyer-Bar of L'Aubette, 2014

Theo van Doesburg, the Cinema–Dance Hall of L'Aubette, Strasbourg, 2014

3938 L’Aubette, Theo van Doesburg, Strasbourg, 1928

On the Meaning of Colour in Architecture by Theo van Doesburg‘It is important to establish a clear distinction between the three main trends in architecture, as this plays a crucial role in how colour is used.

1. Decorative architecture.2. Constructive, exclusively utilitarian architecture.3. Plastic architecture.

In decorative architecture, colour is used as a means of decorating the surfaces created by the architectural design. Its use here is exclusively ornamental and in no way does the colour become one with the architecture. It remains an independent element which, instead of giving the building greater strength, does little more than camou�age it, or, in the most extreme cases, destroy it (as in the Baroque period). In constructive architecture, designed purely as a response to material needs, colour, in the form of some absolutely neutral shade such as grey, green or brown, serves no other purpose than to underline the element used to link and unify the architectural design, or protect the wood, ironwork etc. against the elements. As a result, colour merely accentuates the constructive, anatomical character of architecture of this type. Utilitarian architecture only takes the practical side of life into account; the functional mechanics of life, of where we live or work. However, a higher necessity, above and beyond these purely practical considerations, does exist, a necessity of a spiritual order. If the architect or engineer wishes to make the balance of a given building’s proportions visible, in other words, express how a wall functions in relation to space, their intentions are no longer exclusively constructive, but also plastic. As soon as the wall is made visible, and its relation with other elements in the building’s construction highlighted, including its relation with the materials used, then the aesthetic dimension of the design is brought into play. Consciously voicing this balance of relations is synonymous with producing a plastic work of art. At this stage, a stage we might call the ‘stage of plastic architecture’, colour becomes the matter through which such ideas are voiced, just like the other materials used, such as stone, ironwork or glass. In this case, colour is not just a means of orientating the design, in other words of making visible such elements as distance, position or the angle of volumes and objects, but is �rst and foremost a means of satisfying the desire to make visible the mutual relationship between spaces and objects, between direction and position, or measure and direction etc. The aesthetic role of architecture resides in how these proportions are ordered. If harmony is reached through this process, then so too is style. No further demonstration is necessary; a balance may only be reached through a close working partnership between engineer, architect and painter. At this stage, architecture has surpassed its purely constructive phase, and has attained a higher level of re�nement. No longer satis�ed with merely exhibiting its anatomy, it has become an animated and inseparable body.’—Taken from La Cité: Urbanisme, Architecture, Art Public, vol. 4, # 10, Brussels, May 1924

L ’Aubette, 1928Unfortunately, the original interior décor of L’Aubette remained in place for less than ten years. When the Horn brothers withdrew from the venture in 1938, their successor decided to revamp the interior, thereby effacing the avant-gardist décor of the original which had never truly conquered the hearts of the Strasburgers.For years to come, little more was known of L’Aubette than what could be seen in a handful of black and white photographs. And yet the Cinema-Dance Hall, with its colourful diagonal grid pattern and suspended gallery, had become a key aesthetic symbol of the period and a historical icon of the bonds linking architecture to colour. The original painted panels were rediscovered quite by chance in the 1970s and were awarded heritage protection in 1985 and 1989. Restoration work was undertaken in 1985 and completed in 2006.Today, the first floor of L’Aubette has been returned to its former glory and is open to the public, providing us all with the opportunity of ‘situating ourselves within the painting, rather than in front of it’, in the words of Theo van Doesburg. In doing so it becomes quite clear that the effect produced by this interior by far surpasses the limits of mere decoration. Elementary forms, straight lines and three colours, together with black, grey and white, suffice to turn a colourful composition into a monumental tour de force, literally shaping the space and atmosphere of each room. This is clearly a ‘complete’ work of art. —For further information: www.musees.strasbourg.eu

Theo van Doesburg, Cinema-Dance Hall of L’Aubette, Strasbourg, 2014

Ciné-dancing de l'Aubette, Strasbourg, 1928, all rights reserved

Landmarks

40

Historical Perspectives

The Commission Rooms at the Palace of Europe,1977-2014—In 1977, architect Henry Bernard commissioned Texaa® to treat the acoustics of the twelve commission rooms at the Palace of Europe, seat of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. We returned to the site some thirty-seven years later to study the effects of passing time.

The 1977 knitted fabric

42 43Historical Perspectives

Texaa before Texaa®

The Council of Europe has been established in Strasbourg since its foundation in 1949. As the oldest of the European institutions, it has 47 member states, thereby representing almost every country in the European continent and over 800 million citizens. Its activities concern every field of daily life, and its best-known bodies are the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. In 1952, it was joined by the European Coal and Steel Community, and then the Assembly of European Communities on the latter’s creation in 1957, subsequently renamed as the European Parliament in 1962. The Palace of Europe was built to house the Council in 1977 by architect Henry Bernard, to whom we owe the Maison de la Radio in Paris (1952–1963). Not only was the building in Strasbourg to be large enough to serve as the headquarters of the Council of Europe, its role was also to house sessions of the European Parliament within the context of a rapidly expanding European community. Henry Bernard forsook the sweeps and curves for which he was renown in favour of a ‘functionalist’ design based on straight lines. The building was to have 9 floors and a square floor plan, with each side measuring 110 m. At its heart lay the 580 seat semi-circular debating chamber, along with 1,500 individual offices, 12 commission rooms and a large meeting room for the ministerial committee. The interior spaces are based on the notion of flexibility—flexible glue-laminated lumber arches, flexible circulation, flexible floor and wall coverings to absorb noise and provide a hushed atmosphere where pride of place is given to speaking and listening. The twelve commission rooms used the first acoustic wall coverings designed and produced by Texaa® and the stitch chosen back in 1977 is reminiscent of early loud-speakers. This was the first large-scale acoustic remediation project on which the company worked, sowing the seeds of the future.

Les salles de commissions du Palais de l’Europe, 1977-2014

Palace of Europe, architect Henry Bernard, 1977, all rights reserved

Original wall coverings in the commission rooms

44 45Historical Perspectives The Commission Rooms at the Palace of Europe, 1977-2014

Time Revisited…Thirty-seven years on, and the interior design of the Palace of Europe was looking a little dated, unavoidably so. The architect responsible for the building’s upkeep today has the original design uppermost in mind and requested renovation based on identical reproduction, using the same materials. But with the passing of time, the Texaa® range has considerably evolved. How on earth would we be able to reproduce the materials used back in 1977? The colours have changed, as have installation techniques… A period of constructive debate and discussion ensued between the architect and team at Texaa®. The multi-coloured strips of fabric positioned diagonally across the walls of the twelve commission rooms were to be progressively replaced by ‘stretch and anchor’ Vibrasto 03, and existing colours from the current range were to be used, in addition to custom made colours based on samples taken from the original wall coverings. The acoustic coverings used in the walls of the main corridors leading to the commission rooms would be replaced with ‘stretch and glue’ Vibrasto 05 and the double-door entrances of each room clad in Vibrasto 10. As the surfaces in need of renovation were extremely large, the work has been carried out over a number of years, but is soon to reach completion. A delegation of Texaa® representatives were filled with emotion when, on 6th October 2014, they visited this pioneering project in their company’s history, hitherto unfamiliar to them. In the last room still to be renovated, they noted to their delighted relief that the wall coverings had withstood the test of time with remarkable resistance. Undeniably they looked a little tired, but not excessively so for materials which are not, in terms of regulatory requirements, expected to have a life span surpassing ten years. Today, most of the commission rooms and the long circular corridor leading to them are once again rejoicing in the seventies vibe of their youth. A number of secondary spaces have also been equipped with the new generation of Texaa® acoustic products, notably Stereo panels. We will be back to check up on them thirty-seven years hence.—Since the construction of the Louise Weiss building (arch. Architecture Studio, 1991–1999),

seat of the Parliament of the European Union in Strasbourg, the Palace of Europe is exclusively

occupied by the bodies of the Council of Europe.

46 47Historical Perspectives The Commission Rooms at the Palace of Europe, 1977-2014

48 49Historical Perspectives

Neighbouring the commission rooms, a suspended panel forming an acoustic cloud installed in a meeting space

The Commission Rooms at the Palace of Europe, 1977-2014

50 Dossier Vibrasto 03, une matière sous différentes formes

Case Studies—Swiss Life, Lyon

Lycée technique de Mersch, Luxembourg

Hôtel de la région Auvergne

Insead, Fontainebleau

Maison des arts de Saint-Herblain

5352 Case Studies

Swiss Life Tower, Lyon Architects: Christian Batton and Bergmann, 2012–2013 (building renovation)

The Swiss Life Tower, formerly known as the Tour de la Société Suisse d’Assurances, is an office building some 82 metres high, erected in 1990 by architects Batton and Roustit in the Part-Dieu district of Lyon.

The tower is built in raw concrete, glass and stainless steel and is one of the highest in Lyon, after the Tour Part-Dieu (165 m) and Tour Oxygène (115 m). When renovation of the building was undertaken in 2012, the Batton and Bergman architecture firm designed a conference room using shades of grey and brown in lively contrast with the bright red of the interior furnishings.

Maximum acoustic comfort was essential in a room opening widely onto the exterior, and all non-glazed surfaces were therefore clad in Vibrasto 03, down to the most minutest detail.

Swiss Life, Lyon

54 55Case Studies

5756

Lycée Technique de Mersch, LuxembourgArchitect: Arco / Architecture Company, 2012 (new build)Acoustic engineering bureau: SCP Acoustique

The technical secondary school situated in Mersch, Luxemburg, forms a high school campus with a neighbouring institution, the Lycée Ermesinde, counting a total of 1,600 pupils and offering extensive academic, sports, cultural and accommodation facilities. The schools are linked by a spacious glazed atrium running both vertically and horizontally through the ensemble, providing easy access to recreational areas and linking centres of daily school life (theatre, library, cafeteria).

Texaa® products were implemented in the wake of an acoustic study carried out, as a means of adapting the reverberation times observed in individual spaces. In the main entrance hall, Stereo panels were suspended from the ceiling, forming ‘acoustic blades’ and fixed into position with through cables, while the cube protruding from the conference room was clad in green Vibrasto.

Stereo panels were fitted to the library, cafeteria, dining hall, offices and conference rooms, suspended horizontally from the ceiling.

As the exterior of each school has its own colour, Texaa®’s acoustic products were used to strengthen this visual identity, and signal the specific function of individual buildings. Shades of red, orange and yellow were used for one of the schools, whereas green, yellow-green and yellow were chosen for the other. The colours were used in harmony with a range of grey tones, and selected from among the 24 colours in the Aeria range.

Case Studies Lycée technique de Mersch, Luxembourg

58 59Case Studies

60 61

Hôtel de la région Auvergne, Clermont-FerrandArchitect: Bruno Mader, 2013 (new build)Acoustic engineering bureau: Aïda

The Hôtel de la Région Auvergne, seat of the Regional Council, lies close to the Medieval heart of Clermont-Ferrand. The resolute modernity of the building’s design seems almost distorted by its attempt to espouse the pre-existing urban fabric; concrete mesh, glass and wood guarantee the design’s lithe continuity, while within the building, the Council assembly hall, public service areas, offices and glazed atriums offer fine panoramas over the hilly uplands of the Auvergne beyond.

In the public information areas positioned at the building’s entrance, Stereo panels by Texaa® have been framed in wood to function as acoustic light fittings. They may be lowered or raised to provide a maximum level of acoustic comfort for the general public.

In the main assembly hall, lengths of Vibrasto 10 have been glued onto large sliding metal frames, some 6 m high, to form moveable acoustic shutters used either to shield the windows or unveil the stunning views beyond. The walls of the lighting and sound control room have been hung with Vibrasto 03.

The ceiling of the Presidential office has been clad in Vibrasto 03, including the recess accommodating the light fittings and service hatch access panels.

Case Studies Hôtel de la région Auvergne

62 63Case Studies Hôtel de la région Auvergne

6564

Cafeteria at the Insead, Fontainebleau Interior design: Helen King, 2013 (building renovation)

The Insead, or The Business School for the World, is a private graduate management school with three main campuses, in Fontainebleau, Singapore and Abu Dabi.

Interior designer Helen King was commissioned to undertake renovation work on the 400-seat cafeteria at the Fontainebleau site, and she used the full range of Texaa® acoustic products in her design (Stereo, Vibrasto, Abso).

Colours from the Aeria range were chosen to create a bright and fresh atmosphere, marrying tones of green, yellow and grey, heightened with touches of purple. The colour design also included photographs of Fontainebleau forest, reproduced in black and white on green textile envelopes (our ‘print’ option).

Before the renovation project, this space comprised a number of poorly differentiated zones with a low level of acoustic comfort. Stereo panels in a variety of sizes and colours were suspended horizontally from the ceiling or assembled vertically to articulate the function of each space (cash desk, tray return etc.), forming vibrantly coloured frescos.

Acoustic objects—Abso cones and cubes—were also suspended from the ceiling into the empty space above the main stairwell and in the glazed area at the centre of the cafeteria.

Case Studies Insead, Fontainebleau

66 67 Insead, Fontainebleau

68 69

Maison des arts, Saint-Herblain Architect: agence Tetrarc, 2010 (new build)Acoustic engineering bureau: SERDB

Architecture agency Tetrarc has attired the Maison des Arts, Saint Herblain, in a shimmering golden envelope, a luminescent casing whose interior spaces unfold ‘like a living body, irrigated from its centre by a beating heart,’ to quote Jean-Pierre Macé, architect and co-founder of Tetrarc. The amphitheatre is not visible from the building’s exterior, and functions as an ‘incandescent case’, accommodating the music school at the centre of the project. The dark walls within this large space for music making provide an eloquent backdrop for the playful arrangement of sound absorbing acoustic speakers clad in traffic red, using Vibrasto 10 and 20 merely glued over wooden boxes.

Case Studies Maison des arts de Saint-Herblain

70 71Case Studies Maison des arts de Saint-Herblain

72

Photo Album—Maison de l’Intercommunalité, Lorient Arkose Architects, Bègles Le Before Bar, Monaco Mériadeck library, Bordeaux Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Bordeaux Centre EVE, Centre for Student Life, Le Mans Adagio Residence, Cologne, Germany Entrance hall, Paris Regional Council of Picardie, Amiens RIE Cpam, Versailles 2013 Architecture Days, MulhouseMeeting room, Paris Les Ponts Jumeaux infant and primary schools, ToulouseMeeting room, Gradignan Fabiola day nursery, Brussels Quality Hotel Exhibition, Fornebu, Norway Solinger-Stadtwerke, Germany Boréal Vallée de l’Arve, Les Lacs economic centre, Thyez Victorien Sardou infant and primary schools, LyonConference hall, Paris Syndicat Mixte de l’Usine de la Nive, Anglet Lycée Vauvenargues, Aix-en-Provence Le Bischenberg, Bischoffsheim Hôtel des Finances, Albertville Jean des Sables restaurant, Hossegor Company cafeteria, Marseille Beauvert secondary school, Grenoble Tribunal de Grande Instance (Regional Court), Bordeaux Château Gruaud Larose, Saint-Julien-Beychevelle Rosa Park infant and primary schools, Aulnay-sous-Bois Saint Lazare railway station, Paris Franco-British library, Paris Data Library, Kedge Business School, Bordeaux campus Kiéthon day centre for autistic children, Médréac Le Maxim's restaurant, Crédit Mutuel bank, Le Waken Cité des Métiers Hermès—Entrance hall, Pantin Ziekenhuis, Belgium Multi-media library, Les Mureaux

74 75Photo Album

Maison de l’intercommunalité, LorientArchitects: Jean de Giacinto and Duncan LewisVibrasto 03, lengths stretched and anchored to the walls and ceiling

Arkose Architects, BèglesArchitect: Dominique LescanneClipped to the wall, separated Stereo panels

76 77Photo Album

Le Before Bar, MonacoInterior design: Archimed agency, Eric Simmonet Stereo panels and Vibrasto 03 used on the walls and ceilings

78 79

Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Bordeaux Architect: Brochet Lajus PueyoVibrasto 03, cladding the walls

Mériadeck library, BordeauxArchitect: Poggi architectureDouble-sided Stereo panels used as acoustic blades

Double spread following:Centre EVE, Centre for Student Life, Le MansArchitect: Cabinet Parent Rachdi, NantesVibrasto 03, stretched over wooden cubes

Adagio Residence, Cologne, GermanyArchitect: I.COM Architecture, ParisStereo panels �xed to the walls

Photo Album

80 81Photo Album

82 83Photo Album

Entrance hall, Paris Architect: Agence asa2002, Alexandre Boulin, Toulouse,

Laurent Meyer architects and Studio Putman interior design

Abso totems placed on the ground and double-sided Stereo panels suspended from the ceiling

Regional Council of Picardie, Amiens Architect: Agence Richard architecture, Luc NguyenStereo panels used to form an acoustic cloud

84 85Photo Album

RIE Cpam, VersaillesArchitect: Architecture A / ConceptSingle-sided Stereo panels suspended from the ceiling and double-sided Stereo panels mounted to form an acoustic screen

86 87

Meeting room, Paris Architect: Agence asa2002, Alexandre Boulin, Toulouse,

Laurent Meyer architects and Studio Putman interior design

Vibrasto curtains

2013 Architecture Days, MulhouseAbso totems and double-sided Stereo panels suspended from the ceiling

Photo Album

88 89Photo Album

Les Ponts Jumeaux infant and primary schools, ToulouseArchitect: Olivier Cugullière, Toulouse Town HallStereo panels forming an acoustic cloud

90 91Photo Album

Fabiola day nursery, Brussels Abso cubes suspended from the ceiling

Meeting room, Gradignan Large Abso cones

92 93Photo Album

Quality Hotel Exhibition, Fornebu, NorwayInterior design: Haptic architects, LondonStereo panels positioned on the walls

94 95Photo Album

Solinger-Stadtwerke, GermanyAcoustics: Claudia StürzerAbso pads inserted into the ceiling

96 97Photo Album

Boréal Vallée de l’Arve, Les Lacs economic centre, Thyez Architect: Mollard Gassiloud agencyVibrasto 10 cladding the walls

98 99Photo Album

Victorien Sardou infant and primary school, LyonArchitect: Atelier Didier Dalmas, Clément DurantonStereo panels used to clad the ceiling

100 101Photo Album

Syndicat Mixte de l’Usine de la Nive, AngletArchitect: Philippe PastreClipped to the wall, clustered Stereo panels

Conference room, Paris Architect: Marie-France Baldran architecture agencyStereo panels suspended from the ceiling

102 103Photo Album

Vauvenargues secondary school, Aix-en-ProvenceAcoustics: Acoustics et Conseil, Thierry Simoneau, VenellesStereo panels suspended from the ceiling and Vibrasto cladding the walls

104 105

Le Bischenberg, BischoffsheimArchitect: cabinet Antonelli HerryStereo panels

Photo Album

Hôtel des Finances, AlbertvilleArchitect: Nunc architectureStereo panels suspended from the ceiling

106 107Photo Album

Jean des Sables restaurant, HossegorArchitects: Joly & LoiretStereo panels forming an acoustic cloud

108 109Photo Album

Company cafeteria, Marseille Architect: Xolf sarl d’architecture, ParisVibrasto 10 stretched and glued into position

110 111Photo Album

Beauvert secondary school, GrenobleArchitects: Atelier Didier Dalmas, Xavier FaureStereo panels

112 113Photo Album

Tribunal de Grande Instance (Regional Court), BordeauxArchitect: Richard Rogers Partnership Vibrasto stretched and �xed into position behind pierced wooden wall panels

114 115Photo Album

Château Gruaud Larose, Saint-Julien-BeychevelleArchitects: Lanoire & CourrianStereo panels forming an acoustic cloud

116 117Photo Album

Entrance hall to an of�ce block, Boulogne-Billancourt Architects: Foster & Partners Interior design: ateliers 234 Double-sided Stereo panels used as acoustic blades

118 119Photo Album

Rosa Park infant and primary schools, Aulnay-sous-BoisArchitect: TOA ArchitectureSuspended Abso cubes

120 121Photo Album

Saint Lazare railway station, ParisArchitects: Gares et connexions, Arep, DGLaStereo panels suspended from the ceiling

123122 Photo Album

Franco-British library, ParisArchitect: Christophe Vendel Vibrasto 03 cladding the walls

125124 Photo Album

Data Library at Kedge Business School, Bordeaux campusArchitects: Agence Arsène Henry Triaud—Ragueneau & Roux

Moon Safari (ex Air architectes)Stereo panels suspended from the ceiling

126 127

Kiéthon day centre for autistic children, MédréacArchitect: Joël Gimbert Interior design: Lena RiauxStereo panels suspended from the ceiling

Photo Album

128 129

Le Maxim’s restaurant, Crédit Mutuel bank, Le WakenArchitect: Sophie BergmanVibrasto 03 �tted to the ceiling

Photo Album

130 131

Cité des Métiers Hermès—entrance hall, PantinArchitect: Agence RDAI architectureStereo panels �tted to the walls

Ziekenhuis, Belgium Vibrasto 03 cladding the walls

Photo Album

132 133

Multi-media library, Les MureauxArchitect: agence Karine Millet Abso cubes and cones

Photo Album

134

Colophon

Texaa®

textiles, acoustics, architecture43, Allée MégevieF-33174 Gradignan

tel.: 33 (0) 556 757 156fax: 33 (0) 556 890 356e-mail: contactus@texaa.frhttp://www.texaa.com

Our grateful thanks to the architects, interior designers, acousticians, �tters and clients whose projects grace the pages of this review. Our thanks also to all those who accepted to share their experiences with us and to the photographers for their illustrations.

This document is not contractual.Latest design products, updates and technical data sheets at www.texaa.com© February 2015 Texaa®

All rights reserved

Photo credits:pages 8, 9 and 12: Grégory Tachet; page 16: Anne-Perrine Couët & Guillaume Delamarche; pages 18 to 21: M+B; page 20 (bottom): Anne-Perrine Couët & Guillaume Delamarche; page 24: (2e vignette) © Ben Buschfeld, page 29 (bottom): © Cristian Bortes; page 32: photo all rights reserved; pages 37, 38, 40 and 42 to 49: M+B; pages 50 and 53 to 55: Studio Erick Saillet images; pages 52, 56: photos all rights reserved, pages 57 to 59: Catherine Thiry, pages 61 to 63: Studio Erick Saillet images; pages 65 to 67: Hervé Abbadie; pages 68 to 71: Stéphane Chalmeau; page 64: photo all rights reserved; page 72: Hervé Abbadie; page 74: Studio Erick Saillet images; page 75: Studio Pollux; pages 76, 77: A+A di Aldo Amoretti; page 78: Vincent Monthiers; page 79: M+B; page 80: Stéphane Chalmeau; page 81: Stéphane Félicité; page 82: Hervé Abbadie; page 83: Franck Deletang; pages 84, 85: Franck Deletang; page 86: Studio Erick Saillet images; page 87: Franck Deletang; pages 88, 89: Vincent Monthiers; page 90: Anne-Perrine Couët & Guillaume Delamarche; pages 92, 93: Simon Kennedy and Trine Thorsen; pages 94, 95: Jochen Tack; pages 96, 97: Studio Erick Saillet images; pages 98, 99: Studio Erick Saillet images; page 100: Hervé Abbadie; page 101: photo all rights reserved; pages 102, 103: Studio VU; page 104: Studio VU; page 105: Stéphane Chalmeau; pages 106, 107: Vincent Monthiers; pages 108, 109: Studio VU; pages 110, 111: Studio Erick Saillet; pages 112, 113: photo all rights reserved; pages 114, 115: Edouard Decam; pages 116, 117: M+B; pages 118, 119: Fréderic Delangle; pages 120 to 123: Hervé Abbadie; pages 124, 125: Anne-Perrine Couët & Guillaume Delamarche; pages 126, 127: Stéphane Chalmeau; pages 128, 129: Grégory Tachet; page 130: Michel Denance; page 131: Kanter Lo photography; pages 132, 133: Stéphane Chalmeau

Graphic design:Anne-Perrine Couët & Guillaume Delamarche

PrintedJune 2015by Imprimerie IBEP F-33610 ZI Canéjan

The editorial guidelines and texts for Texaa®, review #2, were provided by Marie Bruneau and Bertrand Genier, in partnership with ppLab, Bordeaux, 2014.

Latest design products, updates and technical data sheets at www.texaa.com

Texaa®

textiles, acoustics, architecture 43, allée MégevieF-33174 Gradignan

tel.: 33 (0) 556 757 156fax: 33 (0) 556 890 356e-mail: contactus@texaa.frhttp://www.texaa.com