During the renovation of its administrative centre, the Suresnes town council wanted to transform several dark offices into a public reception area and a work space for agents.
Discover how the city’s architecture department has transformed this place into a bright and open space ?
- Owner : City of Suresnes
- Type of activity : Municipal Administrative Centre
- City : Suresnes (92)
- Location : Building courtyard
- Openings : Windows and window doors
- Space to be illuminated : Offices open to the public
- Model Espaciel installed : 28 Wall type Reflectors
Context of the existing situation
The town of Suresnes has an administrative centre for handling the formalities of its citizens. The public reception areas have been renovated to improve the quality of reception.
This operation is meant to be exemplary. The specifications give priority to innovation, transparency, flexibility and energy savings. The solutions adopted include exterior joinery, interior fittings, office furniture, artificial lighting, signage and the use of new connected technologies for the reservation of meeting rooms.
Espaciel has been selected by the architecture department of the Suresnes town hall for this project. Find out how this contributes to the approach the designers wanted to take to transform these dark offices.
Search for solutions
The issue of natural light was crucial to the renovation project. The plateau is located on the garden level on an inner courtyard. It consisted of dark offices.
Suresnes town council used a full range of solutions to brighten up the workspace and gain natural light.
The office layout has been completely redrawn according to a new plan. The partitions are glazed over the entire height of the ceiling. Opalescent films ensure the privacy of each room. But the upper part remains transparent. The walls allow light to circulate.
At the heart of the stage, away from the windows, where the offices are darkest, a backlit ceiling simulates the presence of the sky with the help of a realistic photo inserted in a sort of virtual canopy.
The windows have been replaced by new joinery that is largely glazed and well insulated. The new windows were equipped with Light Reflectors. This innovative product brings more daylight into the building.
Specific implementation
The Wall Reflectors have been installed differently for windows and window doors.
- Mounting on windows :
Fixing directly to the aluminium joinery using self-drilling screws and spacers. Reflector frames and reflector supports are available in matching colours (Anthracite RAL7016).
N.B.: The use of Window Reflectors was not possible because the joinery is bare on the outside of the wall. This configuration does not allow the extensible bar of the Window Reflectors to be mounted in the window tunnel. There is no window tunnel there, hence the idea of using the Wall Reflector with a fixing on the frame at the level of the window sill.
- Mounting in front of window doors :
Fastening to the garden wall opposite the French windows using hinged screws and nylon plugs.
N.B.: This is the classic use of the Wall Reflector. This product allows other types of mounting, such as the one seen above. The Wall Reflector can be mounted on the window sill, on an adjoining wall or on a wall opposite.
Results Achieved
Espaciel Reflectors redirect the light from the sky into the offices. This luminous contribution bounces off the ceiling and distributes natural light throughout the work space. No more dark offices !
On overcast days, when the sky provides 1000 lux lighting in the courtyard, Espaciel Reflectors allow for an increase from 41 lux in the middle of the offices to 87 lux. This doubling of daylight in the offices is appreciable. It creates a significant daylight base. Electric lighting can always be required as a supplement. However, it becomes an additional element. This allows the occupants to enjoy the benefits of natural light and to be less affected by the negative effects of electric lighting.
The Light Reflectors also reflect the image of the sky. It is an important element of contact with the outside due to the fact that this space is enclosed in the inner courtyard of the building. For the office occupants, it is pleasant to see the weather. Having a piece of sky in the field of vision changes the situation completely, especially when occupying dark offices.
In this video, discover the effect of the Espaciel Reflector in the offices of the Suresnes town hall on a rainy day :
