EG Project by Jean Verville Architecte
Addressing the fictional potential of architectural space, the EG project is part of an actual hybridization between architecture and installation intervention. Fascinated by the photographic worlds illustrating the eclectic production of Jean Verville, clients eager for unusual creative experiences adopt the playful approach of the architect with passion, rigour, and sensitivity.
The result is an architecture that is both functional and aesthetic, offering a minimalist and playful experience distinctive of the work of Studio Jean Verville architects.
“A complicit, mischievous adventure... an amazing result for and, above all, worthy of our team!” - Vincent Drapeau and Samuel G. Labelle, co-owners, Les Entreprises d’électricité E.G. Ltée.
Prioritizing an architectural intervention with an assumed scenography and falling within a strategy of minimizing its environmental impact, the project proposes the rehabilitation of a disused industrial building from the 1980s to establish the head office of Les Entreprises d’électricité, E.G. Ltée, founded in 1951. An imposing architectural device deploying 250 stainless steel strut channels organizes distances and proximities, circulations, and groupings. These metal profiles, typical in the electrical field, are used to fix the partitions, support the furniture, and camouflage all of the wirings. This profusion of elements composes an irregular frame that marks the space with vertical lines structuring the spatial delimitations. The industrial character, offered by the raw surfaces of the concrete, the shine of the stainless steel, and the translucent partitions unifying in an entity energized by accents of orange colour, loads the space with an aesthetic cohesion emphasizing the re-interpretation of the open-plan office concept. Both minimalist and expressive, EG offers an environment indulgent of accumulation and excess to stimulate the participatory experience that is part of the daily life of its users.
Promoting a layout where employees can easily communicate with each other, the intervention combines private areas, ensuring the need for physical distance for the protection and well-being of everyone and meeting spaces, rest stations, and areas for sports and entertainment. The individual and collaborative workspaces, requiring a large area, are set up in a portion subtracted from the vast storage space of the building. The part dedicated to offices, a space distributed in half-levels and proving too cramped for the company's needs, requires a complete reconfiguration (reception, administrative offices, conference room, kitchen, employee room, and storage). Partially deconstructed, the existing firewall, made of concrete blocks, is transformed into an articulated railing and a staircase offering visual and physical access to this new sector located below the administrative spaces. This work area, defined by a new enclosure in concrete blocks, constitutes a generous volume with a height of six meters below the ceiling, benefitting from level access with the spacious warehouse area to optimize the premises' functionality. To maximize the contribution of natural light, the vast garage door is replaced by a curtain wall. On the roof, the addition of six skylights, with dimensions that fit into the existing structural framework, helps provide increased natural lighting. These multiple light sources, filtered by translucent partitions, wrap the space in kinetic lighting that contributes to the theatricality of the experiment.
