URSSAF offices, Saint-Etienne, 2009

The building will bring along a specific urban form due to its privileged relation with the surrounding urban tissue; this tissue is, as usual in Saint Etienne, both mineral and vegetal. The building's shape is sculpted by a succession of withdrawals covered with vegetation. Each level is clearly expressed in the facade by the horizontal highlighting of the terraces; more specifically thanks to the vegetation behind the railings. The perception of this inhabited topography appears to (or shows/ shines) lighten (relaxed) because of the volume's horizontal rhythm; it is even more softened by the presence of the façade's vegetation which echoes the outcrop of nature overall present in Saint Etienne. Due to these planted terraces a visual prolongation of each floor is made; they provide a high level of visual and spatial comfort and all work spaces benefit from a double orientation. All the offices and work spaces hence have an exterior green space which offers the users privileged views over the hills in the North and over the open mineral garden in the South.