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Odile Decq and Benoit Cornette Architects wins 1999 DuPont Benedictus Commercial Award for School of Economic Sciences and Law Library

The Economics Building. On four levels, the laminated glass box opens up the building to a view of woods and a river and is pierced by a staircase at each level, creating a transparent promenade.

The Paris-based firm of Odile Decq and Benoit Cornette Architects won the 1999 DuPont Benedictus Commercial Award for Innovation in Architectural Laminated Glass for the design of the School of Economic Sciences and the Law Library at the University of Nantes in France.

The architects say that the guiding principle behind the concept of the two new buildings was not simply to replicate the existing campus design, developed in the seventies, but to create a contemporary variation of it, acting as a filter between the campus and the woods along the river. The School of Economics building, separated from the Law Library by a courtyard, is in two parts. Linking these disparate features is a striking, laminated glass volume inserted on the diagonal.

An interior view of the laminated glass box diagonal, looking towards the Law Library, across the courtyard.

On four levels of the School of Economics, a laminated glass 'box' opens up the building to lovely views of the woods and river. It is pierced by a staircase at each level of the hall which creates a transparent promenade. At nightfall, a blue light underlines each floor to emphasize the glass enclosure.

The Law Library: a view at night from the Economics Building

The judges commented: "Architects can build better buildings in the public sector by learning from this project. It is an excellent essay in achieving the maximum effect with the minimum means. The glass elements deliver a fantastic level of transparency in a very straightforward way."

Odile Decq and Benoit Cornette also won the 1994 Benedictus Award, for La Banque Populaire de l'Ouest in Rennes, France. Mr. Cornette tragically died in an automobile accident in 1998.