One of the trends confirmed by the health crisis is the importance attached to outdoor spaces, in both commercial and residential buildings. In Nice, Nicolas Laisné has delivered a building in which terraces and balconies account for 25 % of the total surface area.
What trends do you see emerging in commercial property since the crisis?
Outdoor areas, which I have made one of my trademarks over the years, and which were still often 'optional' in the minds of investors, are now a prerequisite. The crisis has also accelerated demand for low-carbon construction, particularly wood, which represents 80% of what we do at the agency. Re-use is also in demand, but it's not really widespread yet.
Tell us about the outdoor spaces: do you have a specific example in mind?
In Nice, we built the Anis building with the developer Pitch. The building has 25% of outdoor space! All vertical circulation takes place outside, while the lifts, housed in the gables, open onto open-air spaces. The balconies, with over three metres of overhang, provide shade for the lower floors, which was a real requirement given the Mediterranean climate. In the same spirit, we have created wooden buildings such as WoodWork and Arboretum in the Paris region. It's no mean feat to build in wood, with lots of balconies and outdoor spaces, and to make it all economically viable..
How do users use it?
On a day-to-day basis, the walkways bring the façades to life and encourage informal exchanges. In Nice, the design office, the developer and KPMG have set up their offices here. What they tell us is that they use the outdoor spaces for meetings, to make phone calls and to get away from it all, of course. But they also use it for lunch, to take a cigarette break or to organise festive events. It's a real place to live, accessible from every office!
The upper floors are open to the outside, but what about the foot of the building?
There is a very strong demand from towns and cities, and also from our customers, to offer a range of services on the ground floor. These include crèches, restaurants and shops that can be of use to them. That's why we like to take part in invitations to tender with developers, so that we can be supported by those who have a real understanding of the city's needs. So we can adapt our proposal. Today, office buildings make people want to live in them, and employees want to experience them. Some people say to me: "But Anis doesn't look like offices, it looks like housing".
Nicolas LAISNÉ. Founder Nicolas Laisné Architectes
