Maison Communale Sembrancher
MEMORIA FUTURA. “Memoria Futura”, or “Memory of the Future”, encapsulates the vision of the renovation project for the Sembrancher town hall and its annex. This motto symbolises the ambition to create memories for tomorrow by enhancing the heritage of yesterday. It reflects a commitment to weave history into the building's future, ensuring that every restored or innovated element contributes to a collective memory in the making. “Memoria Futura” is the essence of a project that inseparably links past and future, offering a space where history continues to be written.
HERITAGE APPROACH: RESPECT AND ENHANCEMENT. In this renovation, the heritage approach is defined by a scrupulous respect for the existing structures, while incorporating essential improvements to meet current needs. The project aims to enhance the historic character of the buildings, focusing on the restoration of the original architectural elements and preserving the proportions and materials that characterise the municipality.
The intervention on the façades is intended to be sober and minimalist; it leans towards a faithful restoration, in which the original tones and textures are revealed through the use of suitable techniques and materials, such as mineral-based renders, chosen for their compatibility with the building's aesthetics and function. The exterior renovations are designed to blend into the village's aesthetic, preserving visual authenticity and coherence with the surrounding urban landscape.
Beyond mere conservation, the project aspires to subtly reinterpret the heritage and bring it into dialogue with contemporary insertions. This approach is particularly evident in the treatment of the new public spaces and work areas, where the modifications aim to strengthen social bonds and encourage community interaction. The constructive choices, from materials to methods, are dictated by a strategy that harmoniously balances the legacy of the past with a progressive vision, ensuring that the building continues to serve the community with the same integrity as at its origin.
The whole project is a celebration of Sembrancher's past, a reaffirmation of its identity and a commitment to carry its legacy into the future. It is a renovation that does not merely preserve, but aspires to magnify, to enrich the experience of the village for residents and visitors, respecting the soul of the place while writing a new chapter in its long history.
FLOOR TYPOLOGY: FUNCTIONALITY AND ACCESSIBILITY. The renovation of the Sembrancher town hall and its annex is conceived to optimise functionality and accessibility on every level, while respecting and enhancing the existing heritage.
Basement: The basement of the town hall, preserved in its historic use, continues to house the bourgeois carnotzet. The connection created between the annex's basement and that of the town hall allows the integration of a modern technical room, fitted with a balanced heat-recovery ventilation system, connected directly to a technical duct that runs vertically through the building alongside the new lift, whose position cleverly manages the level differences between the various building bodies.
Ground floor: On the ground floor, the space is rearranged to welcome the public and staff in optimal conditions of comfort and accessibility. The town hall recovers its historic spatial configuration and sees its toilets relocated to free up the façade and create a central service core, improving circulation. The bourgeois hall located in the annex, for its part, benefits from a separate access, with a ramp compliant with standards for people with reduced mobility, underlining the project's commitment to inclusivity.
Level +1: The upper floor, dedicated to offices and work and meeting spaces, follows the logic of the ground floor with particular attention to natural light and flexibility of use. The structural modifications focus on the lift shaft and the adaptations needed for seismic strengthening, while preserving the original layout of the rooms as far as possible.
Attic: The attic, reserved for storage and archives, is treated with care to minimise the impact of the interventions. The insulation is reinforced from the inside to meet energy requirements without compromising the aesthetics of the roof. The decision not to extend the lift access up to the attic is a conscious choice to preserve the roofline, underlining the will to respect the architectural integrity of the building in its dialogue with the village landscape.
This floor-by-floor approach demonstrates a will to harmonise technical and functional imperatives with a heritage sensibility, ensuring that the town hall and its annex meet contemporary needs while celebrating their history.
MATERIALITY AND ATMOSPHERE: COHERENCE AND DURABILITY. The renovation project for the Sembrancher town hall and its annex is intrinsically linked to a choice of materials that embody durability and a timeless aesthetic. The rigorous selection of materials is part of an eco-responsible approach, aiming to reduce the environmental footprint while improving the functionality of the spaces for users.
Inside, the oak parquet, chosen for its resistance and durability, underlines a desire for permanence and quality. This noble material spans generations and improves with time, giving the rooms of the town hall a robust and warm floor that will welcome the steps of visitors and staff. Its extra-matt finish softens reflections, contributing to a serene and focused atmosphere, suitable for a town hall where concentration and calm are required.
The lime-rendered walls, of a luminous whiteness, are dyed through the mass for easier maintenance, resisting everyday scuffs. This approach allows localised and simplified touch-ups, an essential characteristic for a public building with high footfall. This material choice is also a nod to history, lime being a material traditionally used in local constructions.
For the ceilings, the use of lightly whitened spruce offers a texture and colour that reflect natural and artificial light, thus amplifying the brightness of the spaces. This wood, chosen for its visual lightness and its capacity to instil a soothing atmosphere, is in perfect harmony with the meeting and work spaces, where clarity of thought is paramount.
These material choices are dictated not only by aesthetics and ecology, but also by the will to create atmospheres that foster well-being and efficiency. The coherence between the materials used in the town hall ensures a visual and functional continuity, while subtly differentiating the two spaces according to their specific use. The resulting atmosphere is a harmonious blend of respect for the old and embrace of the new, allowing the buildings to tell their rich past while turning towards the future.
ENERGY CONCEPT: EFFICIENCY AND MODERNITY. The energy concept adopts a resolutely modern approach, aiming to optimise efficiency while respecting the historic aesthetic. The project integrates high-performance insulation of the walls, floors and roofs, choosing materials that significantly improve the thermal balance while complying with heritage constraints.
The walls are reinforced with high-performance interior insulation, such as PIR Alu for its excellent insulating properties, while minimising the encroachment on living space. The windows are replaced by windows with wood/wood frames and triple glazing. The ground-floor slab receives a layer of EPS (expanded polystyrene) insulation, topped by an ultra-reactive underfloor heating system integrated into a thin dry screed (MDF panels, 20 mm, factory-milled with integrated heat-distribution pipes), ensuring a uniform distribution of heat. The roof is rehabilitated with mineral-wool insulation between the rafters, combined with a renewed waterproofing, to guarantee an optimal and durable thermal envelope without having to raise the building.
The balanced heat-recovery ventilation system is at the heart of the energy strategy, ensuring impeccable indoor air quality while recovering the heat from the extracted air to preheat the incoming fresh air. This solution minimises energy losses and contributes to a healthy indoor environment that harmoniously regulates humidity levels.
Heat production is provided by a connection to the district heating network, an ecological and economical solution that draws on local renewable resources. This choice testifies to the project's commitment to responsible energy management, reducing the building's carbon footprint and ensuring a stable and lasting source of heat.
These measures are part of an overall vision of energy efficiency and modernity, underlining Sembrancher's ambition to marry respect for heritage with technical innovation for a sustainable future.
STRUCTURAL AND SEISMIC CONCEPT: SAFETY AND INTEGRITY. The structural and seismic strengthening of the Sembrancher town hall and its annex is a crucial component of the project, aiming to guarantee the safety and integrity of the buildings against seismic loads. This rigorous technical approach rests on a detailed analysis of the seismic and structural requirements, integrating innovative solutions respectful of the existing heritage.
The structural and seismic strengthening of the Sembrancher municipal complex, comprising the main structure and its annex, is essential to guarantee their safety and integrity against seismic constraints. This approach is based on a careful assessment of the structural and seismic needs, integrating novel methods while preserving the architectural heritage.
The reinforcement of the load-bearing walls uses consolidation strategies that maintain the historic aesthetic while improving their resilience to earthquakes. The use of techniques such as mortar injections reinforces the structure without compromising its appearance. The stacking of the load-bearing walls of the existing building is an advantage left unchanged by the project. Moreover, on the existing timber floors, the addition of a 12 cm reinforced-concrete layer creates a timber-concrete composite slab system, thus consolidating the link with the load-bearing walls.
Concerning the annex, the nature of its renovation and its integration into the whole require a specific reinforcement system. The construction of a reinforced-concrete seismic wall along its junction with the main building acts as a pillar of stability, interconnecting the two structures thanks to the composite slabs mentioned.
The integration of a reinforced-concrete lift shaft brings a dual advantage: it reinforces the structure vertically while improving accessibility. This technical approach ensures a better distribution of loads and reinforces the cohesion of the whole, facilitating access to all levels for a variety of users.
In sum, the structural and seismic concept adopted for this architectural ensemble blends innovation and heritage conservation, deploying advanced techniques to guarantee the durability and safety of these buildings in an Alpine setting exposed to seismic risk.
FIRE PROTECTION: COMPLIANCE AND PREVENTION. The fire-protection strategy adopted favours a modular compartmentalisation, crucial to maintaining the multifunctionality of the spaces. The controlled fire doors are a central element of this tactic, ensuring an effective separation of the vertical escape routes in the event of a fire alarm, without hindering daily circulation or accessibility. This logic extends to the fire curtains that isolate the counters from the horizontal escape routes in a critical situation.
This approach thus guarantees the safety of the occupants while preserving the architectural integrity and the versatility of use of the spaces, offering a practical solution compliant with fire-safety standards. The timber/concrete composite make-up of the floors between levels will ensure an optimised compartmentalisation of these.
In collaboration with François Meyer.