The conversion of the former French military hospital IGESA exposed the raw structures, making the history tangible. In doing so, Boman Architectes realized their ambition to connect the past with the future.

The conversion of the former French military hospital IGESA exposed the raw structures, making the history tangible. In doing so, Boman Architectes realized their ambition to connect the past with the future.

Boman Architectes is a Paris-based architecture firm with an additional office in Nantes. It was founded in 2017 by Claire Borgès-Maunoury and Laurent Lustigman. Since then, the office has realized projects of various sizes.

From small sports facilities to the renovation of historic buildings, from the redesign of industrial sites to temporary installations. It is therefore not surprising that they were awarded the contract to adapt the military hospital.

The site served the architects as the basis for a digital transformation. The requirement to create a dynamic center for Smart Specialization Strategies companies resulted in the adaptation of the building on Air Base 217. The building dates back to the second half of the 20th century and was carefully renovated. The military hospital by Boman Architectes was given internal insulation made of wood wool in order to preserve the original façade.

Large bulletproof glass windows were installed for use as offices, which can be shaded on the outside with green fabric. Only a few changes were made to the interior. The exposed concrete structure was left untreated, as was the necessary building technology.

The visibility of the infrastructure is intended to create an ornamentation specific to the location. The building structure itself was only altered to a small extent in order to preserve the original identity of the site.

The new entrance area is now located in the area of the original spiral staircase. From there, you can access the two office floors and the meeting room on the first floor. The latter is separated from the entrance hall by a wooden wall.

The doors have the same surface finish as the wall, giving it a monolithic appearance. Acoustic curtains were also incorporated into the meeting room to ensure flexibility. This means that either 100 people can be accommodated at the same time, or up to three separate areas can be created.

The secure office wing of the center is located on the upper floor of the former military hospital. The so-called “Room of Secrets” is also housed here. This is a wooden construction clad with steel panels on the outside and structured with a wooden grid on the inside. The ceiling inside is brightly lit.

From the outside, it is clear that this is an addition to the historic building. It is symbolic of the new function of the military hospital and its forward-looking spatial program. The “Room of Secrets” is based on the rocket launch rooms of the 20th century. The area of Air Base 217 still retains a touch of secrecy and a top secret flair.

Buchner Bründler Architekten also treated the existing building with care when converting the old coach house in Basel.

Architectural firms are currently faced with the question: should they continue using their existing CAD software or switch to the future? Because 3D modeling and BIM are becoming increasingly important. “We used the software we’ve always used – but at some point we couldn’t get any further.” This is the almost unanimous tenor of architectural firms that have decided to switch […]

Architectural firms are currently faced with the question: should they continue using their existing CAD software or switch to the future? Because 3D modeling and BIM are becoming increasingly important.

“We used the software we’ve always used – but at some point we couldn’t get any further.” This is the almost unanimous opinion of architectural firms that have decided to switch to ARCHICAD software. The manufacturer of the program, GRAPHISOFT, asked the architects about their motives and uncovered some interesting facts.

The 2D/3D issue is at the forefront of the reasons for switching. Many offices use software solutions that are still heavily reliant on two-dimensionality. This is not the case with ARCHICAD, where working directly on the 3D model has always been at the heart of the system. You can plan intuitively and quickly on a central model. Every change also appears automatically in all floor plans, views and sections.

This is not only extremely time-saving – it is also better suited to today’s working habits, especially those of young architects. They want to move quickly into modeling, work on the living object, so to speak, and quickly deliver presentable, veritable results. Andreas Kleboth from Linz can also observe this in his office: “We have many employees who are familiar with ARCHICAD from their studies and are therefore very experienced and very fast at creating 3D models.”

A quicker sense of space, conditions and atmosphere: this is what more and more clients are demanding. This is where many of those surveyed see ARCHICAD’s great trump card. Architect Johannes Berschneider from Pilsach describes it like this: “The final icing on the cake are the clients, who sit here with their mouths open, watching and ‘walking through the building’.” He is referring to the 3D representations with which ARCHICAD enables impressive virtual building inspections virtually at the touch of a button.

Building Information Modeling is increasingly required in tenders in order to ensure an efficient project process across all phases and between all planning participants.

Training for the changeover

Almost all offices took advantage of the extensive training and support offered by GRAPHISOFT and its local partners. For architect Irene Kristiner from Graz, the ARCHICAD basic course was particularly helpful: “The program’s functions were explained to us right from the start, we were able to work with it directly, ask our questions and receive direct feedback.”

Interesting information portal

What do the individual architects think about their software? Why did they decide to switch to ARCHICAD? And how did the changeover go? GRAPHISOFT has set up an interesting information portal with film clips about various architecture firms in Germany and Austria. More information here.

Credit for all images: Alex Brunner, www.vonbrunner.com