SAGEP WATER
TREATMENT PLANT
IVRY-SUR-SEINE
FRANCE, 1987-1993
INFRASTRUCTURE
PR–068
The intervention for the Paris water treatment plant is more of a “facelift” than a true architectural design. With the exception of the relationship with Avenue Jean-Jaurès, the rest of the plant’s footprint—nearly 9 hectares along the Seine—is completely invisible and off-limits to the public. The architectural image of the plant is therefore of minor importance; the focus is instead on designing an interior landscape and providing optimal working conditions.
PROGRAM
The project has two components: the modernization of the water treatment plant that supplies Paris with drinking water, allowing for more offices, laboratories, and workshops, as well as a series of interventions dedicated to the development of the site.
DETAIL
Situation
Avenue Jean-Jaurès, Ivry-sur-Seine, France
Year
1987-1993
Status
International contest, winning project
Site area
9 ha
Built-up area
1 900 m²
Project management
SAGEP (Société Anonyme de Gestion des Eaux de Paris), Paris
Project implementation
Dominique Perrault, architect, urbanist
Design offices
Groupement OTV/Degremont, Setec-Foulquier
DESCRIPTION
Thus, the intervention is primarily a matter of staging the factory in color and light, spread across all of the site’s technical systems. Only a slender laboratory and office building, set on stilts in the heart of the site and bordering the purification basins, is more conventional in terms of architecture. Perhaps the most spectacular feature is the idea of a peripheral cover, like a large rectangular transparent buoy 8 meters high.
READ MORE
This glass and metal cylinder, towering over Avenue Jean-Jaurès, now forms the factory’s facade overlooking the city. Behind the curved glass walls are the technical facilities of a maintenance gallery, an idea that allows staff to escape the damp basements. The view offered by these 200-meter-long cylinders, punctuated by ground markers and pipes, is striking. It’s like a movie set, bathed in shades of gray, raw concrete, and gravel, and extended by terraces with water features.
At the center of this landscape stands the laboratory and office building, a sleek, slender structure whose aluminum facade is punctuated by a series of random horizontal openings.
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