Logistics Centre of the Alsace European Community Offices

“Our challenge was mainly to organise the various flows, offer a solution adapted to the activities and improve the quality of life of people working here by fixing the lighting issues, providing visual comfort and handling employee safety”, explains the architect Mathieu Brinkert, in charge of the project. “We needed to achieve this in the most favourable environment possible, making it easy to understand, by highlighting the passageways for example. In this context, we decided not to use false ceilings, so we could gain as much height as possible.”  The internal noise issue was handled with partitioning and by installing stone wool with a black cover directly under the ceiling slab. Some Stereo acoustic panels and many Stereo Air open-mesh panels making up nine large clusters added other sources of comfort: thermal, visual and light. Technical equipment, such as HVAC, fire detectors and cable runs, were hidden from direct view, while heat distribution and managing artificial light were important objectives of this project. “The premises have windows, but daylight doesn’t reach everywhere”, the architect points out. “We had to arrange sufficient, comfortable light levels without people having to stare directly at lighting. We carried out tests to get exactly the right distance between the light source and the mesh for the best distribution of light. We even used a photometer to fine-tune the light levels as uniformly as possible across the whole area.” A resounding success!