Sustainability Report
Embodied carbon
The project combines the retention and reuse of existing fabric with local material sourcing. A stone wall from the former factory was retained, while the existing administrative building was restructured to accommodate the music school. Materials recovered directly from the site were also reused: salvaged rubble stone was incorporated into an existing facade, while smaller stones were used to create the textured formwork for the new concrete facades.
Sand and aggregates for the concrete were sourced from nearby quarries, establishing a short supply chain. The concrete itself does not meet the ECOPact label or another low-carbon classification. Its selection was instead closely tied to the topography and material character of the site, allowing the building to respond to the cliff as a continuous mineral form while providing the structural capacity required for its long spans, cantilevers, and large openings.
Operational Emissions / Energy
The project was designed in accordance with RT2012 and uses the thermal mass of the building and adjoining cliff as part of its environmental strategy. The media library is built directly against the rock to benefit from the thermal inertia of this substantial mineral mass, a relationship reinforced by the concrete structure. Within the cave-like reading room carved into the cliff, the exposed rock also contributes to humidity and thermal comfort.
Natural light is brought into the reading spaces through high-level windows, larger glazed openings, and the glazed staff patio overlooking the ground-floor reception. The architect reports an average daylight factor exceeding five percent, supporting high levels of natural light within the building.
Generous ceiling heights and thermal stratification of the air also contribute to summer comfort.
Service and maintenance emissions
The cast-in-place concrete facades were developed to require little to no maintenance and are intended to acquire a patina over time. Their ochre colour and handcrafted texture were refined through four prototypes constructed on site, allowing different colours and surface treatments to be tested before the final facade was produced.
The ochre-coloured concrete incorporates white limestone aggregate. The architect describes cast-in-place concrete walls with a stamped finish, using rolled wood wool as the stamping matrix on a concrete base containing 40/80 limestone aggregate, together with timber-lined formwork and 40-millimetre PAVATEX insulation. Surface treatments include stained, tinted, stamped, plank-like, raw, bush-hammered, and inlaid finishes, with a mineralising coating used for protection. According to the architect, the facades will require little to no maintenance and are intended to develop a patina over time.
