ALLARD
A (re)invented proximity, to live sustainably as before, without virus
This is the story of an unprecedented technical and human adventure that will provide a lasting solution to the issue of health safety in enclosed spaces, where conviviality is an essential value.
In mid-April, after several weeks of shutdown due to Covid 19, Alain Ducasse does not resign himself to seeing the French art of living disappear for many months or even longer. He is thinking with Patrick Jouin about a perennial solution, allowing him to ensure a secure sanitary space at all times and in all places, while preserving the operating capacity and the conviviality of the place. Cap Ingelec took part in this adventure, both technical and human, by installing an innovative system of air treatment and filtration in the chic bistro Allard (6th district). The story of a collective challenge!
This is the story of a technical feat, born of a major constraint. After several weeks of inactivity due to Covid-19, the emblematic chef Alain Ducasse wanted to reopen his Parisian brasserie Allard, while guaranteeing optimal sanitary safety to his customers. The challenge was significant because the chef wanted to not only preserve the magic of the place, but also maintain its operating capacity. With the designer Patrick Jouin, he thought about a permanent solution, the result of a reflection carried out with 2 professors of the AP-HP hospitals. First observation: the virus is potentially transmitted in the air by aerosols. In other words, the simple fact of speaking diffuses it into the atmosphere. Consequently, in a closed environment, the air volume can quickly become saturated with viral load. How can we limit its spread?
Tight deadlines
The experimental solution, imagined by the architect Arnaud Delloye, is a clever ventilation system based on two pillars: dynamic aeraulic balance and filtration. Designed and realized in a very short time frame by CAP INGELEC teams, this device aims at maintaining a perfect aeraulic balance between the supply of fresh air and its extraction, all combined with the air conditioning of the room, which is traditionally an air blower, conducive to the dissemination of possible viruses to neighboring tables.
How can this be done? Quite simply by installing a supply and an individual extraction vent placed at 2.20 m high above each table, associated with networks of ducts ensuring the forced renewal of fresh air, the extraction of stale air, as well as the supply and return of the existing conditioned air that had to be associated without aeraulic imbalance.
Perfect air filtration
Acoustically neutral, this ventilation network, 120 m long, offers perfect filtration (level H14) of fresh air, stale air and recycled air conditioning. Its secret: filtering socks with a surface area of more than 100 cm², calculated to drastically slow down the speed of air movement (0.07 m/s). In addition, the installation of screens and dividers in the center of each table prevents potential migration of the virus. For Arnaud Delloye, “Everything happens as if each table was placed under a virtual dynamic bell.
Fully integrated into its environment, this installation reduces the social distance from 1 m to only 32 cm between each table. This is a real economic gain for the restaurant, which optimizes its operating capacity by over 80%. Tested in real-life conditions, the device was endorsed by the Uteam report, confirming “a very strong reduction in the risk of virus transmission in a restaurant.” When technology meets gastronomic dreams…
The design of the Allard restaurant is a real prototype that opens up a new way of treating the air in a closed space open to the public. This method in its entirety (air treatment and specific installations) is transposable: it could thus be integrated as of the design of new constructions, that it is about restaurants or any places in which a great number of people stay in a static way.
The work was completed in 2 weeks, which was a logistical feat in the midst of a confinement period. This project was carried out by our Parisian teams, directed by Hervé Marchaudon, Technical Director of Climate Engineering at Cap Ingelec.
Source: Press kit distributed on June 11, 2020 by Ducasse Paris with photos by Philippe Vaures Santa Maria
