The extension of the town hall of Villiers-le-Bel

The Graal architecture office just completed the Hôtel de Ville de Villiers-le-Bel, in the department of Val-d'Oise.

Photo credits © Maxime Verret

The extension of the town hall of Villiers-le-Bel reflects political, social, and cultural challenges and a commitment of the client to the enhancement of the quality of services available to the citizens of the town. It aims to provide a neutral, singular and, intemporal image in this urban landscape characterised by a heterogeneous context blending varying architectural scales and densities.

The project transforms the inward-looking institutional building into one that exists in a dialogue with the surrounding urban fabric and social context. The unifying architectural style of the new extension creates an arrangement that, rather than making architectural statement, seeks to clarify what is already there, in order to improve the coherence of this part of the rapidly evolving town centre.

The new volume avoids the role of architectural object and instead serves as a backdrop framing the historic town hall. The treatment of the envelope with vertical ceramic baguettes unifies the extension by the materiality of a mineral skin. Thus, the project comes across as a mediating element organising the different relations between the buildings that through a process of accumulation compose the current town hall.

Alternating shades of beige through the interplay of solids and voids, the new mineral cladding endows this institutional facility with a new subtle and peaceful presence in harmony with the town’s older domestic terracotta-clad buildings.

Inserted between the two existing buildings, the new extension is embedded in a very cramped footprint. This residual space has been turned into a lobby where the transparency of the façade extends the forecourt directly into the building’s interior whilst also enabling citizens to calmly carry out their business unimpeded. From the west side, the volume separates under two roofs with two slopes designed to recall the original single family homes of a small town that has since become in just a few years an amazing multicultural crossroad.