The town of Dammarie-les-Lys (Sena-Marne) is organized around three interconnected sites: the plains of Lys, the historic town centre and the parks surrounding the monastery. Located in the heart of the Lys Plain, the Albert Schweitzer Community Center is housed in thousands of housing areas built in the 1970s, once the “city center” of the time.
Located at the bottom of the two tallest tower buildings in the town, in front of the square built on May 8, 1945, this characteristic building is the center of the town area and bears important urban and landscape functions. However, although it is an important community space and an important part of the urban landscape, the original community center is not an attractive public space. The original building facade is hidden behind the messy vegetation and metal grid panels, greatly reducing the light entering the interior, and the closed building does not have visibility in public spaces.
The challenge of transforming/expanding the Albert Schweitzer Community Center and dealing with the surrounding environment is to create a new, vibrant and vibrant image for the region. The façade is made of glass and brushed stainless steel, a metal skin made of A588 weathering steel, and the metal skin material wraps around the building like a ribbon. The unity of the materials gives the building a strong sense of presence, harmony with the city and the landscape, and at the same time improves the thermal performance of the building. Plants distributed in front of the entire block highlight the metal strips that are evenly distributed on the façade. These metal strips can also be seen through plants. The façade metal strips form a variety of entrances according to different positions, and also bring a day and Light changes in the four seasons, unique shapes in the field, and viewing angles. The ground-covered vegetation was replaced by a treadmill with tall trees, forming the frame and open space of the Albert Schweitzer community centre to see the rest of the town.
