56 Rue de Tivoli
Located in a calm yet well-connected district of Bordeaux, 56 rue Tivoli offers optimal conditions for architectural reuse. The project transforms a 1980s office building into 25 apartments and a commercial unit, addressing housing demand while limiting land consumption. Its rational post-and-beam structure, generous heights, glazed façades and L-shaped configuration provide strong adaptability, allowing the building to accommodate new domestic uses and support a high-quality, sustainable residential transformation.
Transformation Process
Architectural and Urban Intentions
The project prioritises preservation over demolition, reusing the structural frame, slabs, and circulation cores. A strategy of gentle reversibility informs the design: the former office building is reimagined as housing with minimal intervention.
Façades are renewed with light cladding and larger openings, and outdoor spaces are activated through landscaped thresholds, balconies, and shared green areas. The aim is clarity, comfort, and a strong connection with the surrounding neighbourhood.
Constructive Approach
Removing obsolete elements revealed the full potential of the concrete frame. A new double-skin façade ensures thermal performance while maintaining visual lightness. Prefabricated concrete stairs and terraces, supported by a metal framework, introduce precise geometric additions and planted transitional zones.
A hybrid steel–concrete system preserves existing load paths and enables rapid, coordinated on-site assembly, giving the building a renewed residential identity.
Re-inhabiting the Building — and the Neighbourhood
Spatial Organisation, Livability and Comfort
Dual orientations allow cross-ventilation and abundant daylight. The structural grid supports diverse apartment types, all with private outdoor spaces. Externalised staircases form small vertical clusters, improving comfort and privacy.
Relationship to the Exterior Environment
The transformation reintroduces vegetation into a formerly mineral site. Planted ground floors, planters, and vertical greenery create a living filter between the street and the dwellings, softening the building’s presence and enriching the neighbourhood’s urban sequence.
An Attractive Urban Context, a Prime Site
Located in a calm yet well-connected district of Bordeaux, 56 rue Tivoli offers optimal conditions for architectural reuse. The project transforms a 1980s office building into 25 apartments and a commercial unit, addressing housing demand while limiting land consumption. Its rational post-and-beam structure, generous heights, glazed façades and L-shaped configuration provide strong adaptability, allowing the building to accommodate new domestic uses and support a high-quality, sustainable residential transformation.
Transformation Process
Architectural and Urban Intentions
The project adopts a strategy of precision and restraint.
Rather than demolishing, it preserves and reuses essential components — slabs, circulation cores, structure — to create comfortable, functional homes without technical overstatement.
A principle of gentle reversibility guides the intervention: what was once office space becomes housing, yet remains open to future change.
The façades are subtly requalified with light cladding and generous openings, bringing clarity to a previously dark building.
Outdoor spaces are reactivated: along the street, landscaped thresholds with balconies and stairs form a lively interface; on the courtyard side, a green collective forecourt and a stone-clad pavilion enhance shared amenities. Durable materials contribute to a robust, welcoming environment.
Constructive Approach
The building was stripped of obsolete elements, exposing the full potential of its concrete frame. A complete asbestos removal enabled a fresh technical start.
The new double-skin façade — mineral cladding and full-height glazed frames — improves thermal performance while maintaining the original lightness.
Prefabricated concrete access structures and terraces, supported by a metal framework, introduce distinctive geometries such as helical staircases and triangular terraces. These elements generate planted interstitial spaces that soften the transition between private and collective realms.
To respect existing load paths, a hybrid steel-and-concrete system was developed, assembled with precision and speed. This technical graft reinterprets the codes of the office building into a new, vibrant residential identity.
Re-inhabiting the Building — and the Neighbourhood
Spatial Organisation, Livability and Comfort
The dual orientation of the building allows for cross-ventilated apartments with abundant natural light and varied spatial atmospheres.
The post-and-beam structure supports a wide range of typologies, from studios to five-room units, all benefiting from private outdoor extensions grafted onto the existing frame.
Circulations are optimised: externalised staircases create semi-private clusters — one stair for six dwellings — improving comfort, privacy, and clarity of access.
Relationship to the Exterior Environment
The change of use introduces nature into a previously mineral site.
Planted ground floors, green planters, and vertical vegetation form a living filter between Rue de Tivoli and the dwellings.
The inventive façade design and integration of greenery create a renewed urban sequence, bringing softness and vitality to a neighbourhood historically marked by hard surfaces.
