An urban living room with a concrete library wall in the heart of Cholet

An achievement integrated into a global rehabilitation project: the Arcades Rougé

The municipality of Cholet was keen to see the Place Rougé project come to fruition... With its new layout (cinema, shops, housing, etc.), this space is transformed into a "crossroads" that is both the lungs and the heart of the city, a place where it is good to stop for a moment, to stroll a little... with easier pedestrian and bicycle travel and the enhancement of the historic city center of Notre-Dame.

This urban living room, with its adapted furniture and floor lamps fitted with large lampshades, is complemented by a huge library of 5 fictitious volumes adorning a blind facade.

This achievement (10 m high and 13 m wide) gives great elegance to the whole which, at night, is no longer just decorative but becomes a true work of art, subtly illuminated...

The prefabrication company Novadal-Privat ensured the molding of the various modules and was able to meet the tight specifications in terms of production time, technical and environmental constraints.

Technical specifications for a unique creation: modules, relief and verticality...

While the aesthetic rendering of this library facade is impressive, its design required significant upstream thinking on the part of the Labatut Architectes associés firm, and more specifically Peggy Jousse, who initiated the project, to guarantee the technical feasibility, strength and safety of the whole.

The constraints of the specifications required real collaboration between the various partners (Labatut, Novadal-Privat and Ciments Calcia) to complete this project in two stages: on the one hand, the construction of the retaining wall and on the other hand, the creation of some 457 cast concrete elements clipped onto the retaining wall and partitioned by 266 linear metres of uprights and crosspieces which suggest the effect of a bookcase.

At Novadal-Privat, laboratory work was essential for the choice of cement, aggregates and additives: finding the specific formulation capable of providing the desired strength and aesthetics over a vertical surface of 135m2.

The cement chosen is a white cement CEM I 52,5 N CE CP2 NF “SB” from the Ciments Calcia factory in Cruas, particularly recommended for architectural facings and artistic masonry, and very slightly tinted yellow to approximate the color of natural stone.

To manufacture the modules, Novadal-Privat, which has specialized in the prefabrication of paving and street furniture since 1918, created nine models of slabs.
Of different sizes, 3 cm thick, with overhangs of one to two centimeters, they suggest the impression of relief for the decorative elements. Another important point, the elastomer molds were cast on wooden models, in order to maintain enough elasticity to obtain the smoothest possible rendering with a faithful reproduction of the details.

The combined know-how and expertise of each person made it possible to create a sculpture in the heart of the town of Cholet in two months, replacing a blind facade, thus contributing to the beautification of the place!

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Italcementi Group is the world's fifth-largest cement producer. Italcementi Group subsidiaries combine the expertise, know-how, and cultures of 22 countries across four continents, through an industrial footprint of 4 cement plants, 63 grinding centers, five terminals, 13 aggregate quarries, and 5 concrete batching plants.
With a turnover of more than 6 billion euros in 2008, the volumes sold by the group and internal transfers were as follows for each activity: 62,6 Mt of cement and clinker, 47,6 Mt of aggregates and 13,9 Mm3 of concrete.

With 7,7 million tonnes of cement sold in 2008 from 10 production sites in France, for a turnover of 916 million euros, Ciments Calcia is the major player in the cement industry in France.
A French subsidiary of Italcementi Group, Ciments Calcia offers a comprehensive range of high-performance products tailored to every need. From gray cements and white cements to lime, masonry binders, road binders, and specialty products, the diversity of Ciments Calcia's CE-standardized and NF-certified products provides a solution to all the requirements of the construction market.

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For any further information, please contact:
Calcia cements
Les Technodes - BP 01 - 78931 Guerville Cedex
Such. 01 34 77 78 00 - Fax 01 34 77 79 06
www.ciments-calcia.fr