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St Rémy-lès-chevreuses (78), France


Architects: Angel Menendez & Alexandre Lahyani

Client: Ville de St Rémy-lès-chevreuses (78)

Project team: atelier LÂME (mandatory architect), GRUET Ingénierie (Technical studies office),
 Clarity (Acoustician studies office)

Landscape Architects: 22° Paysage

Design team: Angel Menendez (atelier LÂME), Alexandre Lahyani (atelier LÂME),
Edgar Suasnavar (atelier LÂME), José Roldan

This new intervention on the Jean Racine space, a cultural and artistic centre, initiates the creation of a convivial and warm place, favorable to meetings and promoting creativity. 

The two new volumes, levitating above the valley and the vegetation, do not alter the biotope and are bordered by footbridges on stilts, connecting them to the existing building and the surrounding landscape.

With contemporary accents, reinterpreting the local architecture, the language is refined, simplifying the reading of the whole. 

The numerous farms that dot the area have fed the architectural reflection, with an intervention that echoes them both in its volume and in the implantation around the existing building. 

The interior courtyard becomes the pivot of the whole program, reinterpreting the symbolism of the farms, real visual landmarks that participate in the identity of the territory and the landscape.

The proposed balance lies in the use of a similar material: terracotta, giving the project its unified and contemporary aspect.