Page 162 - ELEMENTS EUROPA (EN)

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LIFTS
INTENTION
The experience of using a lift is usually of little interest and
sometimes a source of stress. Conversations stop, people strive
to stare at spots where there is nothing to see, the lift cabin
and its occupiers feel its moving effect while doing their best to
remain still. Time stops, reality is negated and life is put on hold.
Human beings are not programmed to share such a small
space with so many people without anything in common but an
abstract destination.
The panoramic lift placed outside or inside the atrium
overcomes “life retention” by making the lift’s elevation
perceptible by sight. A landscape is there to be beheld and
shared, even without words, and passing floors go with life’s
flow.
The functional constraints of the Europa building make the
practical installation of such lifts impossible. Set in the centre of placed behind the panels, particularly to the counterweights.
the floors, they must necessarily be installed as two “sets” (6 and
8 cabins) wrapped in fireproof concrete walls. Therefore, the
challenge consists in giving the “trip” in a completely caged lift a
kinaesthetic, social and cultural dimension.
CONCEPT
Wholly glazed cabins on their vertical side, with a minimal
hold on their opaque sections, move before a gigantic “fresco”
by Georges Meurant, constantly lit up and whose coloured
rectangles decorate the inside walls of the sixty or so metres
high shaft. Wholly glazed landing walls and doors make that
“ballet” visible by users waiting on the landings.
TOUCHY ISSUES
The shaft is built with the tolerances applicable to the shell
construction. Due to its significant height, any small relative
gap can cause a major absolute gap. Moreover, it is essential
for the lift to follow a strictly vertical itinerary. Then how can
the position of the lift’s metallic structure be determined, built
with millimetric tolerances so that it is perfectly vertical without
clashing with an irregular shell? Thanks to simple plumb-lines
(6 per sheath, stretched over the entire height), the sheath
plan was drafted at each level and positioned in accordance
with the same verticality. Drawings for each level were then
superimposed so as to find the “window” inside which the lift
structure as a whole was to be set.
Another subtle thing to do was to hide “technological”
elements (the supporting metallic structure, counterweight,
guiding rails and cables) behind the pictorial dressing.
Nevertheless, other less visible flat elements are necessary:
the panels separating the sheaths according to the number of
cabins, railings or even the metal sheet toe-guard beneath the
doors. These panels are made of perforated stainless steel or
dust grey sheeting, so as to offer some transparency and little
possibility for dirt to stay.
Cutting the “fresco” elements (Forex®, rigid expanded PVC
panels) after colours are printed and setting their alignment
when being installed aims at guaranteeing a perfect match
of the setting lines, from one panel to the other. Moreover,
trapdoors have been installed to grant access to the equipment
Coordination with the finishes of the landings required
specific attention.
In the lift batteries facing each another, it is crucial for landing
walls to be facing each other in strict alignment as they connect
through the lines of the luminous ceiling. A security blind set
into the ceiling rolls down to divide the landing into two parts
and it is essential for the blind set rails attached to metallic
mullions to be on the same vertical axis.
Finalising and coordinating the execution required
considerable work, based on close cooperation between the
installers and the architects. All lift-constitutive elements were
re-conceived to be integrated into the final works. Even cables,
sheathed in black, were chosen with utmost care to limit their
number by assembling conductive wires.