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ARCHIVES

Refurbishment of existing archives into housing and offices in Versailles
Open competition – 1st Prize in 2011
Collaborators : Max Kahlen
For : Fondation Wilmotte
Size : 6.800 m2

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 charaterised by the glass brick wall façade. To reveal this singular typlogy, our first intention is to keep both the volumes and the voids they surround.

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. With a new glazed façade on each side, the buildings open up toward the outside; the interstice becomes a place in motion.

elseline bazin architecte