UIA

CONCOURS INTERNATIONAL IDEAS COMPETITION FOR THE RECONVERSION OF THE LORIENT KEROMAN SUBMARINE BASE (France) : SECOND PRIZE

THE PROJECT - THE PICTURES Ground floor Plan Perspective view on Bunker KII Elevation towards Port Longitudinal section E-E' Bunker KIII Interior view of the periscope structures

-  SECOND PRICE WINNERS   Authors of the project: Nieto-Sobejano architects (Spain), in association with Ove Arup & Partners S.A., engineers.

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

THREE STRATEGIES AND A PROJECT

The problems raised in the competition concern the limits of a large scale project, a development plan that affects a vast area of the outskirts of Lorient. The complexity of the urban reality and multiple interests in play make it progressively more difficult to specify plans of action unless uncertainty margins are built in to allow for unexpected events and accept undefined frontiers. Our proposal will be based on a specific project: the transformation of the former submarine base bunkers, extending into the surrounding area, establishing reconversion laws, suggesting open intervention strategies, confronting the landscape with different points of view: as a Geographer, as an Urbanist, as an Architect, as a citizen.

STRATEGY 1

THE PARK ON THE BANKS OF THE TER

The banks and ponds of the Ter form a natural reserve area which needs to be protected and strengthened. A former favorite place for Lorient residents to stroll, the path towards Ploemeur should be understood as a unit together with the coastal route which passes Barrage de Kermèlo and continues on to Larmor-Plage and Kernével.

Both banks of the Ter will accommodate a large natural park, a leisure area linked to the sea with extensive trees lined areas at one end of which the former Kéroman base is located. The park will not have a pre-conceived specific design, it will consist of a green strategy.

STRATEGY 2

TECHNOLOGICAL PARK. HALIOPARC

Directly related to the park on the banks of the river Ter, and separated by the new placement of Rue François Toullec, we propose the second strategy: a technological-industrial park which will extend up to Rue Monistrol and include the planning areas called Uea, UD, NDb up to Round Point at the Sous Marins Base.

Like a corbusian Usine-Verte, the Halioparc will be perceived as a continuation of the river-side park. The buildings which will be developed in the future, will be dispersed throughout the space without any imposed geometric order appearing as mineral elements within the park's vegetation. A winding interior road throughout the area will provide access to all plots of land.

STRATEGY 3

THE FISHING PORT

If the new coastal park and Halioparc have been conceived as natural landscapes beside the sea, the fishing port to the contrary, belongs to the urban area of Lorient. It is an area dominated by the radial geometry of the existing circular slipway. Given the current unfortunate structure of the roadways, the lack of architectural value of the buildings and the obsolete slip-way, which can be replaced by travel-lifts, as well as by the future use of the military dry-docks, we propose a third strategy that tries to link of the Kéroman base with the city.

We will establish an orthogonal scheme, defining bands perpendicular to Avenue du Commandant L'Herminier, for industrial and port use. We suggest a series of buildings which will dance - a sort of Broadway Boogie-Boogie- and which will fill the area in the future, maintaining maximum building limits of 1 m2/m2 and 10 meters in height.

A PROJECT

If the three preceding strategies - park, Halioparc and fishing port,- arise from the wish to be open and flexible, with the aim of making their development possible over time, accepting the inevitable uncertainty that arises from any large-scale development plan, the project for the submarine base is, to the contrary, conceived as the generator of the new area of Kéroman.

In this case we will define a formal structure, a specific architectural idea with the conviction that only in this way will the massive presence of the bunkers be able to establish a dialogue with the city of Lorient.
We will build a series of large metallic structures which will embrace bunkers KI, KII and KIII. Each of them will establish a bridge between the ground level and the roofs of the bunkers, acting at the same time as large periscopes introducing light into the interior cells and allowing the exterior to be viewed, as was the case with the submarines that occupied this area for so long.

The large inverted << U>> shaped structures may be understood in different ways:

• They symbolize the appropriation of the large roofs of the bunkers, which will from now on be enjoyed by the citizens of Lorient.
• They will announce, through their changing mediatic façades the new uses of the buildings.
• They will reflect light - and even exterior views- towards the interior of the cells through the use of moving mirrors that will act as large periscope-buildings.
• They will house vehicular and pedestrian traffic systems which will make possible the access to the roofs.
• They will include administrative offices which will manage the new FUTURONAUTE.
• Finally, they will constitute the new access point to the bunkers thus inverting the traditional circulation pathway: first the roofs will be accessed, and then the interior cells can be gained.

The new structures will be formed by 6 m deep steel trusses, supported by braced columns. The trusses span 85 m: two external vierendeel beams and three internal triangular trusses. Stability in longitudinal direction will be provided by the portal frame effect. Transversal stability will be provided by a braced frame with pinned connections to the foundations.

The project - The pictures