Usine du val – Lyonnaise des Eaux

Four large and ugly reservoirs and a sewage works sited in fields used to welcome visitors to the historic city of Orléans.

The Lyonnaise des Eaux has commissioned AIM Hanemian Architectes to cope up with a design to modernize and improve the appearance of the site. The Agency’s design requires the ground level around the curved silos to be raised in order partly to mask them.

Secondly, the considerable area covered by the reservoirs is to be a site for a large number of photovoltaic panels installed on a structure independent of each reservoir, thus avoiding the risk of cracking and polluting.

The visual impression of the whole site is of four large flying saucers sitting atop lunar craters. This effect is enhanced by the steep slope of the solar panel structures: the flying saucers appear to be either landing or taking off.

Time-phased night-lighting, varying in intensity, accentuates the flying saucer effect – they could be taking off any minute – and thus makes an impressive sight for any visitor to Orléans by day or by night.