PortziX Exail Brest, France | Budget: 8M€ - Surface XXXXXX m² - France
PortziX Brest: Factory extension and renovation
Mission : Analysis, Feasibility, Programming, Competition organization + Project Owner support
Mission : Analysis, Feasibility, Programming, Competition organization + Project Owner support
Exail, a French high-tech industrial company born of the merger of ECA Group and iXblue, specialized in autonomous robotics, offers complex systems for marine navigation, aerospace and photonics.
Exail’s Brest site, acquired by iXblue in 2002, specialized in the development, production and marketing of high-end positioning and communications equipment for the underwater environment. ECA, based just a few hundred meters from the site, develops software applications for marine and underwater drones.
The PortzIx project aimed to bring together all the employees of the two former companies in a single working environment, by creating a new, unifying building.
Context
A unifying building
Exail is at the forefront of French and international high-tech industrial groups. Each production site is an opportunity for Exail to symbolize the company’s brand image as a major global player in its fields of expertise, and to reflect its ambition for cutting-edge technologies with a positive impact.
Ideally located on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Brest narrows, with a view of the Atlantic Ocean horizon, the project’s exceptional site was naturally destined to become a vehicle for the image of the Exail Group, which wanted to make the future building a showcase for its technologies and know-how.
The building is intended to be the Group’s flagship for subsea technologies, and the embodiment of Exail’s positioning and technological excellence.
In addition, the design of the building had to meet a series of demanding challenges, ranging from the adaptability of the spaces to the planned program, to minimizing the environmental impact of the building, including the challenges of cohesion and well-being in the workplace desired for this site.
The challenge of the project was also to design a building adapted to Exail’s growing needs, enabling it to accommodate and federate its various activities while meeting its ambitions for future development. At the same time, we are responding to climate change issues by constructing a sustainable, reversible building with a positive environmental impact.
The program
Entering circles into squares
From the very first discussions, a duality of project challenges was clearly identified: a focus on the building itself, on its intrinsic qualities as a workplace, and on its potential as a container adapted and adaptable to Exail’s present and future needs and ambitions. On the other hand, we had to look at the building in relation to its context, both literally and figuratively. The intimate dialogue between the project site and the ocean horizon almost compels us to draw a parallel with Exail’s positioning and ambitions, in relation to its areas of expertise.
The building's dialogue with its context and environment, in the broadest sense of the term, had to reflect the company's positioning and adhere to its values.
- L'ici: through this ambitious project, BAM and Exail wanted to design a building that would offer optimal conditions for production, and propose an ideal cohabitation between the site's different teams and activities. Through its architecture and functional organization, the building was designed to create a working environment conducive to the emergence of human and technological synergies.
In addition, one of the major constraints of the project was the need to keep the site operational during the works. The need for intelligent phasing of the works quickly emerged as a key issue in the design of this project. - The horizon: Providing an excellent working environment is a major challenge for the project. The building had to offer a comfortable, high-quality working environment, appropriately integrated into its maritime landscape, and wide open to the sea and surrounding nature. On the scale of the site, the challenge was to find a logical layout for the buildings of this production site, while at the same time restoring a predominant place to nature and its biodiversity, which are major assets of the site. Moreover, aware of the impact of such a project on the environment, Exail wanted to set an example in researching and implementing solutions to reduce it to a strict minimum. Passivity, reversibility and reduced carbon impact were defined as the pillars of the project's environmental design.
Architectural competition
A cutting-edge, international selection
As with previous collaborations between BAM and Exail, in-depth work and close collaboration were necessary to identify the ins and outs of creating a comprehensive, coherent and visionary programme in terms of possible developments in the company and its production.
A complete understanding of the existing building and its production processes was the first step, essential to projecting an optimal future building, perfected and in tune with its context and our times.
Once the specifications had been drawn up, the competition could finally be launched.
From around a hundred applications, including those from the most renowned architectural firms in France and abroad, a shortlist of 6 architects was drawn up on the basis of the portfolios and references submitted, and their relevance to the project program.
Following interviews during which the MOA and BAM were able to discuss the shortlisted teams in greater depth, 3 teams stood out: Barozzi Veiga, NP2F Architectes, and Titan architectes.
Ongoing competitions
Winner announced in 2024...
“Le concours le plus couru de l'année 2022”
AMC
“Le concours le plus couru de l'année 2022”
AMC
“Le concours le plus couru de l'année 2022”
AMC
“Le concours le plus couru de l'année 2022”
AMC
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