L'Hôtel de Ville - Chartres

URBAN RESPONSE Finding a flow in order to implement a mass and void procuring a sense of a space dedicated to its public urban function, adding a programmatic value to enhance the medieval context of the city. The two buildings, as an extension of the city hall, re-define the space and flow of the inhabitants and visitors. One can spend time outside and inside without being an active agent within the building, but using the public space to one's own needs. Going up the stairs, it detaches one from the original public, entering the void - visually and physically - rendering all the possibilities which the space is capable of, and arriving to the C_ suspended monolith above the city offering its view. On top of it, one will find the D_ 'Paradise Garden' - the magical place to be surrounded by the city. PARADISE GARDEN Different levels of the city accompany the visitor to different perspectives of the city and then elevate the visitor onto a paved scenic square putting in scene the vast view. Here, a garden of beauty creates a multitude of scents and a spectrum of refined colours. A glass wall protects from wind and underlines the gardens' hidden charms.The Hôtel de Ville Chartres is a competition entry by Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes with VOGT Landscape Architects for the renovation and extension of Chartres' town hall, in the shadow of the Gothic cathedral (UNESCO World Heritage, 2.5M visitors/year). Two new volumes redefine the movement and spatial experience of the civic complex. The ascent through the building culminates in the Paradise Garden: an aromatic rooftop landscape offering views of the cathedral and the city. The garden's planting - lavender, rosemary, thyme, rose - creates a spectrum of colour and a multitude of scents at the highest publicly accessible point of the civic building. Landscape: VOGT Landscape Architects. BfNA reading: this project is understood as a case study in human-environment interaction, behavioural adaptation and contextual spatial experience. It extends beyond architectural production into environmental intelligence / how design decisions can support human adaptation, social responsibility, ecological performance and future evidence-based practice.