Toulouse School of Economics, 1 Capitole

Toulouse, France

This project created a new building of the Toulouse School of Economics.

As part of the winning design team of this new build project, we were commended for succeeding in marrying modern building requirements to the local traditional
architecture and reinterpreting the Roman brick in architectural and environmental terms.

The multi-courtyard building is split into three blocks and characterised by a cellular plan layout. This allowed every office to have access to daylight and natural ventilation via the façade, which became the single most important element of the environmental design.

The achievement of thermal comfort with minimum dependence on building services was a key objective but also a major design challenge due to the very sunny and hot local summer conditions.

Natural ventilation was predicted to keep the building within comfort conditions for approximately 75% of the year and mechanical cooling was designed to ensure comfortable temperatures during all times. Energy demand is minimized by using heat pumps taking advantage of the water from the nearby canal.