A+ Architecture – The Lucien Cornil Student Residence 8-story CLT building

A+ Architecture | Lucien Cornil Student Residence, Marseille.

Completed in November 2017 after a design by French design agency A+Architecture, the Lucien Cornil student residence is an eight-story timber building located in Marseille, southern France.
The residence is one of the highest buildings in France with a load-bearing structure made completely in Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), a material produced by gluing solid-sawn lumber layers perpendicular to one another. This is a very interesting building technique since it reduces construction times substantially, provides high thermal and sound insulation, and reduces energy consumption with an excellent carbon footprint. “The entire building was designed to be thermally and acoustically efficient while maintaining a very competitive price”, A+ Architecture says.

Lucien Cornil student residence, Marseille, site plan © A+ Architecture

cover-image: Lucien Cornil student residence, Marseille
photo © Benoit Wehrle, courtesy A+ Architecture

The project by A+ Architecture – winner of an architectural competition in 2015 – is the result of a design process very attentive to the context whose outcome is a functional and comfortable 200-room student residence. Careful positioning in the site and the arrangement of the three interconnected blocks that compose the student residence allowed the creation of high-quality communal areas and circulation spaces, as well as a building open onto the city, despite the high density of the urban area in which it is situated. The residence includes a double-height lobby space, student rooms open onto a communal enclosed garden, and spaces with high acoustical insulation due to both the timber-based construction system and the arrangement of the windows opening on the street.
The building’s facades are clad with aluminum panels coupled with a wavy external skin made of wavy perforated metal sheets. At night, artificial light coming from inside the building and filtering through its semi-transparent envelope transforms it into a highly recognizable urban landmark.

Lucien Cornil student residence, Marseille, axonometric view. © A+ Architecture

Lucien Cornil student residence, Marseille. Photo © Benoit Wehrle, courtesy A+ Architecture

Lucien Cornil student residence, Marseille, ground floor plan © A+ Architecture

Lucien Cornil student residence, Marseille: cross-section © A+ Architecture

Lucien Cornil student residence, Marseille. Photo © Benoit Wehrle, courtesy A+ Architecture

Lucien Cornil Student Residence – fact sheet
COMMISSIONED ARCHITECT: A+Architecture   www.aplus-architecture.com
COMPLETION: November 2017
LOCATION: Marseilles, Bouches-du-Rhone (FR)
CLIENT: Crous in Aix-Marseille Avignon
PROGRAM: Wooden construction of 200 lodgings in an eight-floor building,
Cité U Lucien Cornil site
SURFACE AREA: 4, 352 m2 SDP land 12,000 m2
CONSTRUCTION COST €.8,715,000 + VAT
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Travaux du Midi (Vinci)