The architect of the residence “Le Surcouf” in Angers, whose balcony collapsed in 2016 killing four students, rejected on Wednesday any involvement in the technical design of the building, on the first day of the trial where five defendants appear.
On the evening of October 15, 2016, a festive evening gathering regarding thirty friends turns into a nightmare when, at regarding 23:00, the balcony picks up and tumbles into the void, dragging 18 young people into his fall of more than 8 meters.
Antoine, 21, Benjamin, 23, Lou, 18, and Baptiste, 25, were killed, while fourteen others were rushed to the hospital.
The five defendants with a clean criminal record, key players in the construction chain of the building, have retraced their professional career.
A graduate of the Beaux Arts in Paris and Columbia University, the architect Frédéric Rolland, 66, took over in 1989 the firm that his father had created in 1954 in Angers, and which participated in the reconstruction of the city following the war. “There was a very constituted team and already seven private residential projects carried out for this client, the Surcouf being the eighth”, he added, presenting himself as a “man of the art”, turned “exclusively on the search for the creation of a concept”.
“An architect will never be an engineer or a computer. At no time do I calculate slabs and reinforcement,” said the one who was nevertheless the prime contractor of the site, explaining that he had trained “with experience” in site monitoring.
At the time of the tragedy, Frédéric Rolland was busy setting up a practice in Shanghai, while claiming to “ensure in France the follow-up of the aesthetic respect of the work” on the construction sites.
“We are still forbidden to hear him say that for years he has only been practicing his profession for aesthetics, even though he should be doing it for safety. We are a little shocked,” said Louis-René Penneau, a lawyer for 32 civil parties.
– “No forgetting” –
“Has having done these projects abroad allowed him to be present locally to follow the construction sites? Obviously not,” commented Laurence Couvreux, another lawyer for the civil parties. “He says that he had engineers who were carrying out the construction site, but by operating his company on an individual basis, without the safeguard of the legal form of a company, he must assume legal and criminal responsibility,” she added.
The builder Patrick Bonnel, 72, former manager of the eponymous family business, holds a BTS as a construction driver and joined the company in 1976 at the request of his father. He was engaged “in the technical part” and his brother “in studies”.
Also implicated, the construction driver Eric Morand, 53, joined Bonnel in 1994, a company he will leave in 2018. “I can’t forget 2016, I have a daughter born in 2016 who is polyhandicapé so I can’t forget 2016,” he told the bar.
When asked regarding his qualifications, the 63-year-old retired construction manager Jean-Marcel Moreau replied that he had no diploma, having learned his profession “on the job” at Bonnel at the age of 18 following working on the farm.
André de Douvan, 84, a former public works engineer, spent three-quarters of his career in the private sector before joining Apave, a technical inspection office.
In their conclusions, the investigators had discounted the responsibility of the guests who were on the balcony and the hypothesis of a lack of maintenance by the trustee.
On the other hand, they severely incriminated the builders: waterlogged concrete, casual supervision of the construction site, arrangements with the construction rules, improper positioning of steel frames… Most importantly, the balconies that were originally planned to be prefabricated in the factory were finally cast on the spot without new plans being realized.
A total of 83 people have registered as civil parties.
During the instruction, Eric Morand explained that the change in the way the balconies were built saved 14 weeks on the construction schedule.
The trial is scheduled to last until March 4.
