PROJECT DETAILS
The Context: An Innovative Office Space Offering
“The short circuit of innovation” — this is the guiding principle behind the creation of the Enova district in Labège, spanning 282 hectares on the outskirts of Toulouse. At the heart of this site, designed to promote economic development and better living, SEM ARAC Occitanie sought to provide office spaces tailored to businesses — especially start-ups — offering an ideal environment for growth and creativity, aligned with new ways of working.
Located along the “Diagonale,” a soft mobility axis crossing this “Nova-city,” Data Valley extends across 20,000 m² and 7 floors. While the building's future occupants evolved during the preconstruction phase, it fundamentally reflects the original vision shared by the Region and its architects, Viguier Architecture Urbanisme et Paysage: a flexible, adaptable facility capable of accommodating a wide range of activities — a place where well-being at work is inseparable from thermal comfort and environmental quality.
Key Challenges: Light, Comfort and Flexibility
Although designed prior to the RE2020 regulation, the project anticipated it and was awarded the E+C- label at level E2C1. It uses sustainable, sensible energy solutions while paying careful attention to sound comfort and indoor air quality. More broadly, natural light and spatial flexibility are central to the architectural concept.
The modular façades, composed of glass, aluminium, and Flexbrick ceramic brickwork, are articulated in staggered volumes depending on orientation, creating a dynamic interplay between indoor and outdoor spaces.
The fully glazed ground and first floors form a base that houses large public-facing or shared areas, including a multifunctional agora, with ceiling heights reaching up to 8 metres. From the second floor upwards, a central interior patio expands into wide open-air walkways, leading all the way to exterior terraces on the top three floors. Surrounding this breathing space, floors 2 and 3 offer expansive open-plan areas of up to 3,000 m², while floors 4 to 6 are broken down into more intimate office spaces.
WICONA Solutions: Finesse, Performance and Versatility
The aluminium joinery by WICONA, installed by Castel Alu, gives structure to the building’s modular expression, covering 8,000 m² of glazed façades. These alternate between two finishes: a semi-gloss RAL 7021 black-grey (30% gloss) for the curtain walls, and a lighter anodised effect on the upper floors using Interpon Y203I Soft Silver.
The ground and first floors span more than 2,000 m² using the WICTEC 60 curtain wall system — a highly adaptable solution. In this case, it allowed for reinforced mullions in the double-height reception areas, custom-developed by Castel Alu's design office in collaboration with WICONA. It also enabled curved transoms for the north-facing entrance to accommodate convex and concave bent glazing, as envisioned by the architect.
On the upper floors, the WICLINE 65 evo system was chosen for its slim profile, performance and versatility. Installed as an external face-fit over 160 mm of external thermal insulation (ETI), it covers 5,800 m² of continuous bands combining glazed fixed lights, solid panels, and side-hung windows with glazed spandrels. Framing elements emphasise the windows on the 2nd and 3rd floors, forming a continuous band around the building.
All openable units are fitted with contact sensors linked to the building management system (BMS), and the WICSTYLE 65 doors on the ground floor are equipped with full access control systems.
