The project is located in La Madeleine's hyper center (Lille metropolis), in a dense urban fabric characterized by a significant presence of individual dwelling houses and former industrial buildings. A young couple acquired a former workshop and entrusted us with it's transformation into a family residence.
Appreciating the surface needs for this four-person household brings us to restrict our action to a surface of 125 sq. meters on the ground. A part of the warehouse surface will be left in it’s original condition and used as a private car park, whereas the small venue fronting the road will be turned into an architect's workshop.
Our desire has been to work the architecture of the existing building, it's particular metal framework, it's sheds, its painted brick walls, those qualities to be values and staged through a contemporary interventions.
The living spaces are extended over the entire surface of the ground floor and benefits from a generous natural light provided by the sheds, turned into large metallic canopies. Openings are also break through the street, to a height ensuring the loft's privacy. And furthermore, a planted terrace is created at the back of the living space, at the location of a previous building extension.
On top of this wide volume, are disposed boxes, hosting the more intimate functions of the accommodation: a parental suite, two bedrooms for the children with their bathrooms, a guest room and a study.
The complexity of the project has been to dispose those boxes in the middle of many beams and trusses which cannot be moved. The different rooms have been positioned at different altimetry in a way to adapt themselves to these elements. It provides an impression of volumes, floating above the living area.
The volumes are designed in wood and steel frame, that we consider as flexible materials and suitable to the volumes' complexity. A set of wooden stairs is set up to link the different boxes together.
