FORT, incubation centre in Saint-Lo, Normandy

摘要

Strong form Together with 60 other towns in the surrounding area, the town of Saint-Ld in Normandy developed a project for a new "activity zone" on the edge of the town, which does not consist of the usual supermarkets and company headquarters but is based on two communal programs. One of these is an incubation centre for innovative firms in the fields of computer science and technology where specialist support for start-ups, small and medium-sized businesses is offered. The competition for this stimulation program that was to be erected on a site along a highway was won by Randja, the office of Farid Azib, with an introverted, innately calm project. With a "strong form", to use a term coined by Martin Steinmann, it is oriented inwards, like a fortress. By this the Swiss architecture theorist meant "clear volumes through whose simplicity the form, the material, and the colour acquire major importance independent of any references to other buildings". That is to say, buildings that do not convey cultural symbolism semantically (by language) but rather forms that "have their own meaning" and allow "direct experience".