Salt Depot

Programme

Storage shed for road salt

The salt depot is used to store road salt required for the winter period. Few candidates responded to the call for tenders for this seemingly thankless task. How do you design a remarkable building for such a banal purpose? According to the project authors, the design of these buildings deserves attention, a necessity for a rural environment. The building is located in a small industrial estate on the edge of the village of Fontenaille (Houffalize), beside a regional road. Sited on a ridge line, it echoes the rural barns that it reinterprets. Sobriety and frugality are present throughout the design: a foundationless slab resting on the slope of the land for functional reasons, four-meter-high sloping CLT panels supported by triangular panels that facilitate the loading of salt, a glulam structure supporting a shallow pitched roof. Between the base and the roof, polycarbonate panels make the structural principles readable. In contrast to ordinary, blind industrial workshops, it offers a high level of clarity in its construction. This frugality goes hand in hand with rigorous and economical study. According to the project authors: "From a construction point of view, the project spontaneously reveals itself in a frugal sincerity: a store is above all a protected structure. This humble project attempts to offer a building that transcends its mere functionality". It is easy to imagine this structure lit up like a lantern on a winter’s night, sheltering the spreaders. Although the project is clearly not a "high profile" site, and although the public services have taken steps that reduce the impact of the architecture, the project’s approach has the merit of changing the way in which authors approach such "thankless" projects.

Norbert Nelles