Lycée Hôtelier de Lille
Lille, France 2011–2016
Client: Ville de Lille / Region Nord Pas de Calais
This commission for the Lycée Hôtelier de Lille, in the Fives district of Lille, was won in an invited competition organised by the city. The new school trains students to work in the catering industry. The teaching spaces include training kitchens, a training restaurant, and a bakery, as well as residential accommodation and sports facilities.
The Lycée building is the first step in the City’s master plan to introduce new uses to the Fives-Cail-Babcock (FCB) site, a former steel fabrication works in Fives, and a historically important place of employment for the district. The programme for the Lycée is organised within the footprint of the former factory structures, so that the existing buildings could be retained. At the front of the school complex—where the FCB site and the surrounding city meet—is a complex of new buildings for the gymnasium, student residence and staff accommodation, that mediate between the existing surrounding communities and the new communities that will inhabit this emerging urban quarter.
The wider site is characterised by large-scale structures and open spaces. The master plan sustains the scale, monumentality, and the strong spatial qualities of the factory complex. The design seeks to embody the site’s historical significance, presenting afresh the quality and atmosphere of the historic fabric, yet simultaneously adapting the place for community and learning.
Existing structures are kept in their entirety with their attractive, romantic, and slightly melancholy character intact. Applying a light touch to the restoration, brings into focus their epic scale and their history. The new structures are pragmatic and share a tectonic and material sympathy with the existing. The design is not a game of new and old; it is rather about making a new environment, where interventions work at the scale of the factory, and new programmes draw energy from the extreme spatial generosity.












Drawings

Site plan

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Roof plan

Section through the garden

Section through the new accommodation building and sports hall
Elevations

East

Courtyard

South

New build
Colour studies

Existing building

Existing colours, paint chips and associated location photographs

The completed building
Related news
Caruso St John' Architects' projects for the Newport Street Gallery and the Lycée Hotelier de Lille have been nominated for the 2017 European Union Prize for Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award.
Nomination
Equerre d’Argent
Caruso St John’s project for the Lycée Hotelier de Lille has been nominated for an Equerre d’Argent award in the category of Culture, Youth and Sport. The winners will be announced on 21st November.
Credits
Location
Lille, France
Date
2011-2016
Client
Ville de Lille / Region Nord Pas de Calais
Construction cost
€47.2m
Area
29,000 m²
Caruso St John Architects
Adam Caruso, Peter St John
Project architects
Florian Zierer (2011-12), Stephanie Webs (2013-14), Elseline Bazin and Charles Bédin (2014-16)
Project team
Neslihan Aydogan, Thomas Back, Elseline Bazin, Christoff Bedall, Charles Bédin, Bob Braun, Murat Ekinci, Nike Himmels, Summer Islam, Nanami Kawashima, Martin Migeon, Miguel Santamaria, Bernd Schmutz, Jo Sharples, Iason Tsironis, Kai Zipse
Structural engineer
Batiserf
Services engineer
Inex
Cost consultant
Bureau Michel Forgue
Local architects
CAAU - Coldefy & Associés Architectes Urbanistes
Landscape architect
Pascal Cribier with Aptec
Concrete contractor
Holbat
Roofing contractor
SMAC
Façade contractor
PMN
Landscape contractor
AGRIGEX
Photography
Hélène Binet, David Grandorge
Awards
Nominated, EU Mies van der Rohe Award
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