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EXHIBITION PAVILION IN TOKYO FOR RENAULT
Client: RENAULT SA
Architect: Michel KAGAN Architecture & Associés
Structural engineer : ADC Construction
Site: Automobile Show of Tokyo, Japan
Program: Exhibition areas, reception rooms, offices
Surface Area: 600 sq.m.
Construction Cost: 8 000 000 French Francs, exclusive of tax
Competition Date: 2001
"Between prefabrication and harmony"
With a view to taking part in the International Automobile Show 2002 in Tokyo, the French automobile manufacturer Renault wanted an Exhibition Pavilion entirely produced in France and then transported by cargo to Japan for on-site reconstruction, in order to assure a perfect production process, and to verify the use of the pavilion space for visitors; it was of the utmost importance to attain perfect performance so that the visitors would take notice of all the models presented.
To anchor the image of this automobile company, a contemporary architecture was proposed; a balanced synthesis between audacity and creativity, without an aggressive modernism: apparent structures, lightness, pure lines, refined technology without ostentatious prowess. The architecture was conceived as a living place. It defined a volume in which one penetrates, not just a surface that one floats by, as with traditional exhibition stands. The relation between the inside and the outside corresponds to a fluid circuit with precise points for viewing the leading products. The materials express clearly the function for which they were destined. For example, the reception areas' warmth and welcome are reflected in the wenge wood used while colder materials that are more "high-tech" such as "fiberstone" (a sort of marble on an aluminum structure); an extra white matte glass; translucent albaster; fine-meshed perforated metallic screens; and burnished anthracite or stainless steel metallic paints for all of the structures were selected for the exhibition zones in order to highlight the vehicules and the brand technology. This harmony of materials was the origin of a module-type which served as a measure, a sort of horizontal and vertical "tatami", designed for the pavilion in order to be constructed easily, to be taken apart then reconstructed in situ. The dimensions of this tatami are 1,50 meters by 0,75 meters, combined in groups of 8 by 4; they constituted geometrical figures of 6 meters by 5,80 meters and in total, almost a square of 25,50 meters by 21 meters, at 4,50 meters in height. Finally, two models were realizable: the first integrated into a "patio" completed with a tree, a Korean pine, and the second, on a level for the president of Renault.
Client: RENAULT SA
Architect: Michel KAGAN Architecture & Associés
Structural engineer : ADC Construction
Site: Automobile Show of Tokyo, Japan
Program: Exhibition areas, reception rooms, offices
Surface Area: 600 sq.m.
Construction Cost: 8 000 000 French Francs, exclusive of tax
Competition Date: 2001
"Between prefabrication and harmony"
With a view to taking part in the International Automobile Show 2002 in Tokyo, the French automobile manufacturer Renault wanted an Exhibition Pavilion entirely produced in France and then transported by cargo to Japan for on-site reconstruction, in order to assure a perfect production process, and to verify the use of the pavilion space for visitors; it was of the utmost importance to attain perfect performance so that the visitors would take notice of all the models presented.
To anchor the image of this automobile company, a contemporary architecture was proposed; a balanced synthesis between audacity and creativity, without an aggressive modernism: apparent structures, lightness, pure lines, refined technology without ostentatious prowess. The architecture was conceived as a living place. It defined a volume in which one penetrates, not just a surface that one floats by, as with traditional exhibition stands. The relation between the inside and the outside corresponds to a fluid circuit with precise points for viewing the leading products. The materials express clearly the function for which they were destined. For example, the reception areas' warmth and welcome are reflected in the wenge wood used while colder materials that are more "high-tech" such as "fiberstone" (a sort of marble on an aluminum structure); an extra white matte glass; translucent albaster; fine-meshed perforated metallic screens; and burnished anthracite or stainless steel metallic paints for all of the structures were selected for the exhibition zones in order to highlight the vehicules and the brand technology. This harmony of materials was the origin of a module-type which served as a measure, a sort of horizontal and vertical "tatami", designed for the pavilion in order to be constructed easily, to be taken apart then reconstructed in situ. The dimensions of this tatami are 1,50 meters by 0,75 meters, combined in groups of 8 by 4; they constituted geometrical figures of 6 meters by 5,80 meters and in total, almost a square of 25,50 meters by 21 meters, at 4,50 meters in height. Finally, two models were realizable: the first integrated into a "patio" completed with a tree, a Korean pine, and the second, on a level for the president of Renault.