Flying Whales Mamou-Mani LtdFlying Whales Mamou-Mani LtdFlying Whales Mamou-Mani LtdFlying Whales Mamou-Mani Ltd

FLYING WHALES

The project concerns the creation of a production and test site for airships, transfer routes and a take-off area and consists of different buildings. The conceptual approach is based on a method aimed at rationalizing the entire project by limiting footprints, reducing the artificialization of soils, limiting volumes, limiting materials, reducing covered areas, rainwater catchments, natural and manufacturable resources, etc. The volume is rationalized thanks to studies using genetic algorithms making it possible to obtain the form most suited to the typology of the site for a gentle environmental integration.

FLYING WHALES

DATE 2022 – PRESENT

LOCATION NOUVELLE AQUITAINE

STATUS IN PROGRESS

CLIENT OCEAN

TEAM

ARCHITECT

Goudchaux Architectes Associes & Mamou Mani Ltd

Arthur Mamou-Mani, Laurent Goudchaux, James Cheung, Eleonore d’Hauterives
Bilal Mian, Samuel Pierce, Aleksandra Kugacka, Minran Xue, Yasaman Arbabifard
Hsiaoju Lee, Zeynep Aydinoglu

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 
Flying Whales

PROJECT MANAGER
Terrell Group

PARTNERS:
Terrell Group, AltoStep, MBACity, Format, Abaca, Alted, CSD, VPEAS, Ocean, Flying Whales, Seml La route des Lasers, Région Nouvelle Aquitaine

SURFACE: 
85,000 m²

The structure of the very large building is designed in such a way as to integrate and support the lifting equipment used for the assembly of the airships.

The base of the FAH constituting the main paving will integrate, in addition to the rails of the railway tracks, all the technical equipment necessary for the operation of the site, in perfect synthesis with the process of Flying Whales. We believe that the use of this paving could be rationalised by pooling other functions in order to limit the impact of construction (natural cooling, storage of rainwater, etc.).

Beyond the mastery of large complex structures, the development of such an industrial site is largely based on the design of the main doors. We have specifically developed solutions for this project that are adapted to this use, in particular through the design of large motorised textile doors inspired by the principles of origami diaphragms.

The tools for modelling and calculating the resistance of materials have enabled us to come up with conclusive dynamic numerical simulations that can be perfectly transposed into this project.