“Hypérion, the tallest living tree”
Jean-Paul Viguier et Associés, in partnership with Eiffage and Woodeum, has won a competition to build a 50-meter high residential tower in Bordeaux on plot 8.4 in the Saint-Jean Belcier district. The project, named “Hyperion” in reference to the tallest living tree on Earth, will be built using a wooden CLT (cross-laminated timber) structure.
View from Rue Carle Vernet
In environmental terms, the project is representative of a new generation of low-carbon buildings. The lightness and stiffness of solid wood CLT, combined with the strength of glulam and LVL technology, takes timber construction to new heights.
Hyperion will serve as a reference for BBCA (low carbon building label) building.
The construction will begin in 2017 with a delivery expected at the end of 2019.
Energetic Approach
The project, situated in the centre of the city block, proposes a smooth dialogue with the urban grid and many challenges:
– Contributing to the development of a low-carbon territory
– Developing constructive solutions leading to a reduction of the work site disturbances
– Helping in the structuration of the building timber sector with a multiplication and a higher visibility of the timber realizations on the Euratlantique site
– Designing an emblematic project that will lighten the timber sector: a 57-metre-high wood building.
View from Armagnac Street / Heart of the project
The square, conceived to articulate the urban functions and circulations on the ground floor, sets the tower and its roots. The tower emerges and rises up to the 18th floor, surrounded, like the petals of a flower, by 9- and 8-story buildings.
At the tower foot, a lower-height housing complex is articulated. The form allows for multiplying the surface of the façades, opening onto the best orientations, searching for the best views and letting the sun penetrate into the heart of the site, shining into the garden.
View from courtyard
The tower is accessible from the square. The central distribution block, stairs and elevator, and the first three levels are built in concrete. This rigid column is then completed by a timber structure, constituted by posts and beams. The flooring and the partitions are in cross-laminated timber. The post beam system, suppressing the structural panels, offers adaptability for the accommodations in terms of typologies and distribution, following the evolution of each particular family. The building is a superposition of houses.
Here, the design proposes to cover the protected underside of the balconies with wood (some of them are cantilevered up to 5 m). Visible from the ground floor, these horizontal planes will contrast with the brighter colour of the steel cladding and will affirm the details of this façade, emphasizing movement and stacking.
