CFA Bordeaux Lac Vocational Training Centre

Bringing good ideas together

At Bordeaux’s new Vocational Training Centre, young people can embark on training for a wide range of professions – from hairdresser to car body painter, motorcycle mechanic or confectioner. The nature and requirements of the spaces required are accordingly very varied. At the same time, these new premises are sited on the outskirts of Bordeaux in an area featuring large-scale industrial and office architecture, and surrounded by major transport routes. Accordingly, architects Baggio-Piechaud faced the challenge of designing a building capable of maintaining its own identity as a college while simultaneously reflecting and acknowledging the diversity of its surroundings.

Project data

Architects: Baggio-Piechaud

New-build project, completion 2015

9,800 sqm

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The architects solved this conundrum by distributing the space over four separate building structures, which they then tastefully linked together. Extending along the Avenue du Cardinal Richaud access road, a long, three-storey wing gives the Vocational Centre its face. A curtainwall of panels arranged vertically changes the look of the building depending on the viewer’s perspective. This part of the building is used for offices.

The three other building structures house the workshops for the industries represented: spa and beauty, automotive and food. While they share a conventionally linear modern architectural language, the architects have achieved an emphasis on the buildings’ respective usages with specific architectural topologies. The workshop for vehicles and motorcycles is illuminated via a saw-tooth roof, for example, recalling old industrial buildings. A lecture theatre that bulges out of one of the structures gives it an organic feeling.

However different these individual professions may be, one thing unites them all: the necessity for cleanliness and hygiene. In the spa and food industries in particular, perfect hygiene is absolutely essential. In car making, cleanliness is required in the sense of ensuring the removal of heavy soiling. When the architects were looking to equip the sanitary and workshop facilities, they turned to SCHELL. The linear design is a perfect match for the modern architecture, while the robust engineering and intelligent technology offer advantages for high-traffic use.

In the shower and sanitary facilities, fittings and shower panels with self-closing cartridges combine a high level of comfort with the efficient use of water. In the massage and cosmetics salons, fittings with contactless controls ensure the maintenance of optimum hygiene standards.