OBSERVATORY, INSECT MUSEUM AND VISITOR CENTER IN CARRIERES-SOUS-POISSY, FRANCE
Small Buildings as Borders Between City and Territory
AWP (Armengaud Cianchetta) + HHF (Herlach Hartmann Frommenwiler)
The site is a narrow bend in the river Seine, in proximity to an expanding residential zone. This context hosts two structures: the museum of insects, an assemblage of five timber constructions with pitched roofs, interlocking and overlapping one another at irregular angles, and the observatory, a vertical stacking of four elements, analogous in form, though with a white painted steel structure. The collection of pavilions and small “follies” that constitute the exhibition building is based on a modular timber system that repeats and combines structures of differing dimensions in an almost casual manner. The method of construction based on the use of prefabricated structures dry assembled is situ made it possible to benefit from the know-how of local businesses, and respect a rather limited budget and short construction time.
