A Sustainable Ephemeral Grand Palais

The envelope of the ephemeral Grand Palais was afforded particular attention given that the building’s location required that noise pollution be limited and, given its various uses, that an ambient temperature of some twenty degrees be maintained.

“It’s the acoustics that dictated the dimensioning of the insulation system,” explains Julie Jean. For such a venue, capable of accommodating more than 9,000 people, “the aim is to comply with the regulations for combatting neighbourhood noise and to control sound emissions with respect to the residual noise level*, while controlling the internal sound level, which required complete soundproofing of the volume,” explains Alexandre Krieger, project manager of the Lamoureux consultancy. “The sound insulation was designed on the basis of the scale of the building as a whole. On the roof, the solution adopted to meet the desired acoustic performance but also the constraints of a temporary building with a timber structure (weight, construction time, etc.) was a system comprising sandwich panels made of sheet steel and ROCKWOOL stone wool insulation from 100 to 150 millimetres thick, combined with a suspended plasterboard ceiling, damped by glass wool.

This system was tested at the CSTB (Construction Industry Scientific and Technical Centre). Beneath this insulating envelope, in order to address the internal acoustics of the space, an absorbent system combines stone wool with a tensioned anechoic fabric.” This fabric covers all the interior walls. Additionally, all apertures are subject to specific acoustic treatment: smoke extraction ducts, glazed double curtain wall at each end of the building creating acoustic and thermal airlocks, and airlocks for secondary apertures. The concrete plinth is also insulated. Thanks to these protective systems, the very diverse events planned to be held in this ephemeral Grand Palais take place while respecting the sound environment of the neighbourhood.

^{* The decree of 31 August 2006 relating to combatting neighbourhood noise imposes a requirement not to exceed a site’s residual noise level by more than 5 dB(A) by day or 3 dB(A) at night.}