Korus Offices – La Murette
Korus has found a new home overlooking the French countryside in their 15,000 square foot former storage warehouse now completely renovated and designed to cater to the commercial design and fit-out company's creativity and development.
Lautrefabrique Architects completed the offices for Korus, a design and office-fit out firm, located in La Murette, France.
Committed to the transformation of its workspace into a place of living and sharing, Korus, a Dauphinoise family business that cares for its employees, has rethought its collaborative effectiveness, establishing new paradigms for working together.
Previously spread over a two-storey building, Korus now wishes to develop its former storage warehouse to bring its employees into new spaces conducive to their development and creativity while making its head office the showcase of its expertise: the development of commercial spaces.
Thanks to the preliminary work done by Korus volunteers, Lautrefabrique has benefited from an unprecedented programming tool. The architects worked to reveal and stage-manage the values of the land claimed by Korus. Nature and authenticity are anchored in a project of Dauphinois tradition, whether in the use of a formal register taking the skylights of agricultural dryers of the region or by using to the colours of adobe buildings in the valley or surrounding forests.
The storage warehouse is thoroughly stripped out, recyclable elements such as cladding are put into storage, leaving only the frame and roof. The side façades are replaced by timber -framed walls covered with pre-weathered Douglas fir cladding with random vertical waves. Bays grouping the windows of the ground floor and the mezzanine punctuate these facades. The facade on the south side is made up of a curtain wall from top to bottom, protected by motorized brise-soleils, while on the north side the ventilation equipment is grouped together and concealed by sliding doors made with galvanized grating at the bottom and wooden louvers on the upper part.
In the centre of the Warehouse, an amphitheatre staircase serves as a forum, suitable for informal meetings as well as for assembly presentations. The giant screen hanging from the frame is then lowered and the “wheelbarrow” table located at the foot of the stands moved.
The amphitheatre offers spectacular views over the valley, plunges onto the double height work space; much fantasized about during participative workshops. A forest of woodland-coloured cones, suspended above the desks, reduces reverberation times and weakens the perceived noise level both in the space and in the surrounding open spaces.
The general atmosphere of the Warehouse, transcribes the “Rural Chic” spirit of the images selected by the collaborators, some materials have been reclaimed; steel heating tubes as electrical conduits, others ennobled such as the OSB panels of the wooden facades which are stained a light warm grey. The ventilation elements, the cable trays, the underside of the permanent shuttering, the metal trusses have been left exposed contributing to the desired industrial appearance.
The Beehive is the “village square”, a multi-purpose and versatile space that can accommodate around forty people for all types of activities at any time of the day: welcoming visitors, formal or informal meetings, lunch-break events, relaxation, or work sessions.
Access to the headquarters of Korus continues through the central pavilion. The gateway crossed, the visitor is caught up by a breath-taking panoramic view overlooking a picturesque and unspoilt valley, bordered from east to west by the Chartreuse and Vercors mountains, framing in its centre the escapement towards Grenoble and the Belledone range.
A very long bar, with curved ends, a pewter top and a base lined with the cladding sheets of the warehouse, symbolizes the disruptive will of this project in which a reception desk and logo of the brand are prohibited. The way to welcome visitors to the new headquarters of Korus is completely redesigned. The bar gathers all the functions necessary for its multiple uses. It conceals the reception-concierge workstation, the appropriate storage and a galley composed of several fridges and cupboards installed under a work plan equipped with a sink.
The convivial spaces of the Beehive extend outside with a series of terraces, a small one to the north, much appreciated in summer, a larger one to the south, with walkways oriented toward the valley, a shade-house expressing the quintessence of this incredible connection with the great landscape linked to the exceptional situation of the site. Usable throughout the day as a place of informal exchanges, at lunch time The Beehive becomes the employees’ refectory. The kitchen is located behind the shell of a Citroën Tub. Evoking both the truck-food dear to start-ups and the multi-service van that crisscrossed the countryside until the late 70’s, the Tub has aroused the enthusiasm of a small group of passionate collaborators who are put themselves out to find, cut and install it.
Designer: Lautrefabrique Architects
Design Team: Jean-Pascal Crouzet Architecte Dplg, Anne Exbrayat, François Durdux
Photography: Luc Boegly
