Context

The PASORI Functional Rehabilitation Center emerged in its first form in the late 1980s with a first building called P1. Since then, every 8 years on average, an extension is grafted on the previous one, successively taking the name of P2, P3 and P4 today.

The activity of the PASORI center is the treatment of injured people or patients with muscle disorders. Patients benefit locally from a care structure, hospital accompaniment, re-education, fitness and accommodations.

Buildings P1 to P3 occupy 6000 m2. They include a reception area, administrative space, care units, cafeteria, 82 bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room (on the 3rd floor).

The rehabilitation center is located on a hillside not far from Cosne city center, contiguous to a physiotherapy center. It is built on a slope between the Franc-Nohain and Rivières St Agnan streets, along the Nohain river.

The architecture of buildings P1 to P3 took position according to the shapes of the plots in a relatively narrow context. The overall shape is the result of this fragmented distribution with a layering of buildings on the slope.

The PASORI Centre different extensions were built in continuity and they all communicate from the inside. Existing buildings are made of concrete with a slightly pink topcoat.

Project

Program

The project involves the creation of an extension of 3200 m2 on 4 levels and a slight restructuring of the existing ground floor.

The extension project is part of a program with multiple functions, different on each level and on a slope:

• ground-floor (with semi-buried basement)
  • New entrance hall on ground level, accessible to persons with reduced mobility from the parking lot which is less than 100m away. This is a big improvement where previously, disabled people had to have a driver dropping them in front of the main entrance, mid slope from the street level,
  • Services rooms for staff.

• First floor (corresponding to the existing buildings level):
  • Relocation of administration and internal consultation offices,
  • Creation of 8 bedrooms for patients in a chronic vegetative state.

• Second floor: capacity increase for functional re-education of patients (23 single bedrooms) and satellite technical rooms.

• Third floor:
  • Creation of a new panoramic cafeteria,
  • Creation of a therapeutic apartment.

Architectural side

The project is at the foot of the Rivières St Agnan street. The constraint of leaving a passage for the internal roads between Rivières St Agnan street to Franc Nohain street has fostered a fragmented project in two blocks, thus avoiding the too monumental aspect of a single building.

The small building is the first seen before arriving in the town center. It ends with an accessible roof terrace (terrace, garden and small observatory).

The large building is positionned along Rivières St Agnan street with a recess at the entrance, below the first floor, thus creating a kind of porch. Due to the lack of green space around the project, safety gardens are created on the roof. The roof terrace of the top floor is dedicated to the outdoor extension of the cafeteria, alternating spaces with wooden flooring and vegetation. All is at the same height than the existing buildings. The two buildings are connected at their high levels by glass footbridges, and natural light is given in every circulation.

The project is uniformly treated with natural terracotta bricks. The proposed colour is a soft pearl grey making the transition from the existing buildings pinkish tone.

Regarding the openings we have distinguished two types of bays:

• Broad horizontal bays often grouped in pairs on long facades, corresponding to the bedrooms and offices
• Narrow and vertical bays positioned on the gables relative to interior needs.

All windows allow to see outside while standing, sitting or in bed. Motorized venetian blinds provide solar protection on exposed facades. A special treatment has been carried out to the cafeteria bay giving onto the street, with an overhanging situation over the landscape.