A quick facelift

From department store to offices: The sixty year-old Le Plaza building in the centre of Lille was given a facelift and is now radiant in Carrara white, Basalt grey and Volcano black. It was important that this upgrade be completed as quickly as possible.

"The terracotta panels remain attractive for a long time because they don’t absorb air pollution for decades.” - Jacob Kalfsbeek, architect.

From department stores to offices

The Le Plaza in Lille, built in the 1960s, was originally designed to be a department store and now houses offices and seminar rooms. When the bleak 60s charm of the old ceramic façade became quite grim, the real estate agency Sergic Lille commissioned architect Jacob Kalfsbeek to visually upgrade the building envelope.

The appearance of Le Plaza’s original ceramic façade no longer met modern aesthetic standards. The client wanted a new interpretation of the building envelope – something that would give the whole complex a modern character and complete its transformation into an office building.

Customised system solution

"As the premises would continue to be occupied during the renovation work, we had to get the logistics just right in order to keep noise to a minimum”, says architect Jacob Kalfsbeek. To meet this demand, a ceramic system solution was chosen that requires very little installation time and that has a look adapted to modern notions.

The benefits of the curtain wall façade system became evident when choosing colours and during the subsequent fitting of the tiles: little, if any, cutting was required until all the tiles were in place, which reduced noise and also saved time.

Enduring aesthetics

“The terracotta panels remain attractive for a long time because they don’t absorb air pollution for decades”, explains architect Jacob Kalfsbeek. The ceramic façade panels are manufactured using an extrusion process and are both weather-resistant and frost-resistant. The panels can also be customised by giving them individual colours.

The courtyard design is based around cross-beams and pillars. This creates an interplay of light and shade that animates the façade. This effect is now joined by random blocks of colour. “We chose Argeton panels because of their aesthetic properties. The huge range of colours allowed us create a predominantly white Carrara pattern, with a touch of Basalt grey, Metal grey and Volcano black”, says Jacob Kalfsbeek.