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Project Presentation
As part of the urban redevelopment program for the Villeneuve-les-Salines district of La Rochelle, the former Lavoisier school complex and recreation center have been completely renovated.
Of the existing structure, only the concrete of the east and west wings has been retained and fully restored. They are connected to each other by two extensions to the south and north to form a single entity.
The building has been renovated using as many natural materials as possible. It is also exemplary in terms of energy and thermal efficiency, and has been optimally designed to allow for the joint use of facilities.
The new complex includes a nursery and primary school, a leisure center, a multi-purpose hall, and a space for science and nature workshops. The school integrates nature and the environment into the children's daily lives with access to the lake by a footbridge, a vegetable garden, an educational pond, a greenhouse, and nesting boxes.
Structure
The company LCA Construction Bois was responsible for the design and construction of the building's roof structure, timber frame, and cladding. These were made from bio-based materials to limit the project's carbon impact.
The project presented here focuses on the two extensions connecting the old existing structures (east and west).
The first extension consists of a concrete block on the ground floor and a composite timber-metal structure supporting a CLT timber floor. The first floor is a timber structure forming a large column-free space due to timber-concrete slab elements with a span of more than 8 m (~ 26 ft).
The second extension is a timber structure, built around a concrete core. It forms two large interior halls with a height of over 10 m (~ 33 ft). A passageway connects the upper floors of the east and west buildings. The bracing of the courtyard facade follows the angular geometry of the large glass facade.
Design Software
The design office carried out global modeling of the two extensions using RFEM 5 software, taking into account the variety of materials used in the project: timber, concrete, and metal.
Using the RF-TIMBER Pro and RF-STEEL EC3 add-on modules, it was possible to carry out the structural analysis and design of all the timber and steel frames in compliance with Eurocode 5 and Eurocode 3.
Combined timber-concrete slabs were taken into account, in order to consider the concrete stiffness in the structural behavior of flat roof elements with a span of more than 8 m (~ 26 ft).
As this project is located in Seismic Zone 3, an independent seismic analysis of the two extensions was carried out using the RF-DYNAM Pro modules. The various materials were modeled to consider their respective stiffnesses in the analysis.
| Location | Lavoisier City of Nature and Science 31 avenue Victor Schoelcher 17000 La Rochelle |
| Investor | City of La Rochelle, France |
| Architect | ARCHI5 PROD |
| Structural Design and Construction | LCA Construction Bois |
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