Atelier PNG is an architectural design firm stationed in France with a vagabond between urban chaos and peaceful countryside, precisely amidst Paris and Isere mountains. Founded in 2007, the principals, Pedro, Nicolas, and Grichka (P-N-G) delineate themselves as a group of individuals who hold spellbound to travel, capturing moments as ardent photographers, and architecture where they excogitate their inventiveness to establish a symbiosis between the structure and the landscape. They give worthy consideration to what exactly as of now exists and consistently make progress with locally available materials. The firm, Atelier PNG, was the awardee in a competition to construct a high mountain specialized focus, with an exchange dock, in August 2015, in the town of Villard de Lans, in the Vercors Regional Natural Park, close to Grenoble, south of France.
Genesis of Eco-Site Project in Vercors
A recent project of Atelier PNG located at the Vercors region where they had been commissioned to develop an architectural structure that would act as a sustainable measure of implementing local materials and at the same time, also to exploit the waste on the Vercors plateau. The appeal from the client end was to promote the common resource, which was wood extracted from the local forest. This is the field of the task; the PNG group of architects are said to have proficiently carried out in the past and also to have expertise in that area.
The primary proceedings on the valley commence mostly corresponding to silviculture (growing and cultivation of trees). An amenity expected to advance the work conditions is ought to be brought in place. At the moment, there exist several different inconveniences that the workers face. Thusly, making the efficiency of the workspace fall lower, and this needed to be addressed. The interpretation of the assigned task was a major task, the subjectivity of the solution highly depended on how the PNG Architects followed up with the task. The assignment gradually showed up to the design process, where the constituted elements comprised of a primary technical volume that would serve the purpose of a transit dock for waste treatment and garages, along with the workers’ domestic volumes encompassing the office space and workshops as well.
Sited amid the forest, the locally sourced resource present in abundance was the wooden logs pinned down from the trees. The logs sheared down in the previous season dry out themselves by the shade of tall standing trees. The lumber got transported to the site where the construction had to take place and was transformed there itself to ensure maximum utilization. The undertaking was worked with the material of the range, turning into an extraordinary illustration of the information on the items worked in the climate.
The task is a supplication for lumber development and its ethics: structure, shafts, cladding and roofs, entryways, windows, siding, and segments, the wood is utilized all over the place and in different conditions of change: crude, not edged, planed, sanded, oiled. A construction carried out completely just with timber is a standout feature. The prodigal group of architects adjudicated the use of timber in a notable way. This project also reflects on how one should focus on sustainable methods for the construction of a building.
Details of the Construction
The construction was spread along the area of 1500 square meters. Around the Vercors National Park region, the Community of communes of the Massif du Vercors was the client. The structure is a 100% Vercors wood development, being 186 cubic meters of strong wood slashed, sawn, and handled nearby. The overall budget for the construction was around 2 million € HT ( roughly 17.5 crore Indian National Rupees). The construction is an aesthetic exploration of a wooden structure at a very pleasing location, makes it one of a kind building
Key Takeaway from the Project
There are numerous things at stake when it comes to using traditional materials such as bricks, concrete, etc for building construction. A lot of energy is consumed in the production of bricks and cement, which does add to unsustainability. The construction sector, unsurprisingly, contributes to one-third of total global carbon emissions in the world. Global carbon emissions due to the construction sector can only be brought down by innovations regarding the adaptive use of materials that are carbon neutral. In this case, the 100% Vercors wood construction project by Atelier PNG is leading by example. Several architectural firms address the issue of sustainability yet a major portion of players in this field never feels the necessity of addressing the global carbon emissions caused by them. The popularity of traditional sought building materials is also harmful to the creativity of the industry, as it restricts architects to think about innovations and solutions to answer a design brief in a way that fits the context thoroughly.
