POMPOMPOM
  • PROGRAM: Upsize and transformation of a classified building + childcare + pottery + green house + small theater + youth space + locals + foyer . SIZE: 1.950 M2 . LOCATION: Grand-Saconnex, CH . CLIENT: Ville du Grand-Saconnex . STATUS: Competition . TIME: 2014
  • In a highly urban area, the project aims to intensify the existent rural characteristics of the site by positioning several volumes around a rectangular common courtyard. This courtyard becomes the site’s heart, its identity where life is generated by all activities surrounding it.

    The minim intervention on the existing building, an old farm, accentuates its spatial qualities. The logic of parallel walls is kept and a layered organization of polyvalent rooms is created.

    The small theater is placed at the most urbanised area of the site. Along with the new extension to the old building, it articulates the entrance to the square all the while creating a forecourt on the main street. Its iconic peculiar volume corresponds on its various sides to the different scales and needs of both the square and the street.

    The long and low volume that hosts childcare and youth closes the inner courtyard on its length and is totally opened to it. It becomes the lung of the central space, always in activity, during the day with children and later at night with teens.

    At the end of the courtyard, the pottery workshop and greenhouse volume is opened to the green park behind. It hosts a tailored space for pottery activities which were previously in the existing building. It is prolonged by the green house that dives in the trees of the park.
  • Crédits
    In association with Julien Ecoffey
  • 2008
  • 2024
  • List
  • of
  • Projects
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  • 2008 - 2024 : List of Projects
  • LOCO, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • TOUL, BE
  • DIEU, BE
  • MN, UK
  • PAUXP, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • PLACE AUX ENFANTS, CH
  • Frédéric Karam . wood x mug
  • BLAES, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • CHUQ, FR
  • Frédéric Karam
  • KNUST, BE
  • Joffrey About, Frédéric Karam
  • THE CONTROL AND THE UNEXPECTED
  • Joffrey About, Frédéric Karam
  • TRIANGLE HOUSE, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • DUCHESSE, BE
  • Frédéric Karam
  • 449,5 Km, NL
  • Nicole Froehlich, Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos
  • ZAV, BE
  • Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos, Harold Vermeiren
  • KOTO, BE
  • Nicole Froehlich, Frédéric Karam, Michiel Van Der Loos
  • Al Dabal compound, SA
  • Frédéric Karam, RAUM404
  • Lx3, LB
  • Julien Ecoffey, Léonard Gurtner, Frédéric Karam
  • Huis Voor Een Visser, BE
  • Frédéric Karam, Olivier Roegiest
  • Lisière, CH
  • Marnie Amato, Nathanaël Chollet, Frédéric Karam
  • Wall Villa, LB
  • Frédéric Karam, Mio Tsuneyama
  • NOTAN OFFICE is a Brussels based architecture practice founded in 2014 by Frédéric Karam.
    Aware of the specificity of each project, the studio often collaborates with others and works on projects in Switzerland, Lebanon, England and Belgium.

    The work of NOTAN OFFICE is socially and programmatically committed. With a rational approach, the studio boldly manipulate the established, resulting in a unique architecture.
    Whatever the scale, the approach is contextual and seeks to enhance the essence of a place, the people and their concerns in line with today’s society.

    With sustainability in mind, architecture needs to be generous and let the users make it their own.
    NOTANs projects offers sensorial experiences; from spaces to material, the projects are textural.

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    JOBS
    We are constantly looking for talented collaborators and interns
    We only accept digital applications in PDF.
    Send them at notan@notan-office.com
    We’ll try to contact you as soon as possible.

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    ADDRESS
    Av. de la Couronne 382
    1050 Bruxelles
    notan@notan-office.com
    +32 (0)488 868 115

     

     

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    FOUNDER: Frédéric Karam
    COLLABORATORS: Joffrey About, Charles Dujardin.
    PAST COLLABORATORS: Arthur Wery, Pauline Malaquin, Victor Selle, Sibel Yardimci, Argjire Gashi, Esther Perrier, Isis Desmaison, Tommaso Asso, Zyad Belhaj, Sara Lapinska.