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VERSAILLES
Refurbishment of existing archives into housing and offices in Versailles
Open competition – 1st Prize in 2011
Collaborators : Max Kahlen
For : Fondation Wilmotte
Size : 6.800m2
The three repetitive buildings of the former archives of the National library located in Versailles express massiveness and monumentality. This massive aspect is in contradiction with the transparency seen in their “in-between” space characterised by the glass brick wall façade. To reveal this singular typology, our first intention is to keep both the volumes and the voids they surround. A slope is created in each interstice to reconnect the two levels of the plot and introduce a public passage, creating a place in movement.

The offices and housing imagined in these volumes will gain by the rational organisation of the original building. The dwellings take advantage of the strong and repetitive structure of the Archives, to offer generous double-aspect duplex with loggias. A roof terrace garden takes place at the heart of the project generating a visual opening and natural direct light. With a new glazed façade on each side, the buildings open up toward the outside; the interstice becomes a place in motion.