Pierres Vives

Montpellier, France. A building extends for 35,000 sqm. Apparently looking as a single identity structure, the Pierre Vives becomes more and more complex and segmented as it gets approached. Three institutions are united together; an archive, a library and a sports department, are all firmly sealed in a single envelope.
The structure of the massive building may be compared to a trunk of a tree positioned horizontally. The archive is located at the rooted base of the trunk, followed by the library, the sports department and its offices on the far end where the trunk bisects becoming much lighter. ‘The branches’ spur vertically off the main trunk to connect the points of access to the various departments.

Judging from the hereby presented photographs, it is palpable how this structures’ most complex issues in the design and building processes were determining its section divisions and interior organization.
The development of the building was based on functional and economic logistics.  The building’s front part contains a linear lobby with an exhibition space at its centre. Above this connective ground level the building remains strictly segmented into three core parts each with its own internal vertical circulation.
As visitors enter the Pierre Vives, they are directed from the lobby to educational spaces on the ground level; or via lifts and escalator to the principal area on level one. Central in this zone, and therefore located at the heart of the building, are the main public facilities. These significant public spaces form the primary central volume of the grand tarpaulin reigning solemnly above the entrance.
Could this masterpiece be considered as a case of contemporary design that is preoccupied with form and program rather than the human relationship to it?