MAISON DES ASSOCIATIONS ET HALLE DE MARCHE
"We do not build in Pont-l’Évêque as we build in London or Paris…"
These were the words with which the mayor of Pont-l’Évêque introduced the ambitions of the project during the initial design competition meeting. This statement became the foundation of our reflection: to design an architecture capable of meeting the contemporary requirements of the brief while fitting appropriately and precisely into its local context.
A site strategy shaped by place and use
Following the demolition of the annexes and the removal of the façade accretions, the project is organized around the “Orange” building, which is retained in use. Respecting the site boundaries, the associative center is attached to the east side of the existing building.
This compact layout frees up a garden at the heart of the block, directly connected to the new spaces. Beyond its amenity value, this planted area allows rainwater infiltration and establishes a welcome distance from the neighboring collective housing.
From Place du Bras d’Or, an independent path leads to the garden, bicycle parking, and technical rooms, allowing maintenance operations to take place without interfering with daily use.
Addressing Place Foch, the new community house asserts its presence in the public realm. A continuous and enveloping wooden peristyle brings together the entrances, shelters users, and becomes a genuine place of sociability. It accommodates a range of uses—seating, signage, lighting, and an accessible ramp—and structures the perception of the project.
Accessible from this covered space, the hall opens widely onto the square, offering great flexibility of use. From the town center, the overall layout reveals a new perspective toward the landscape of the Touques valley.
Volume and roof: a unified architectural language
The project develops two upper levels above the ground floor, completed by attic spaces, in order to meet the program. The existing building is roofed over to incorporate additional surfaces, notably technical and storage spaces above the multipurpose hall.
With the aim of unification, a four-sided roof in local flat clay tiles (Bavent tiles) links the existing building and the extensions, allowing them to be read as one single entity: the “Maison des associations.”
Constrained by the local urban plan and the requirements of the Architects of Historic Buildings, the project adopts an unusual roof pitch for this type of covering. A double-roof solution is therefore implemented: a technical membrane on a timber support, covered by a system of metal battens that enables the durable installation of the tiles.
The hall, in continuity with the peristyle, is covered by a two-sided roof. Its triangulated structure, left exposed, affirms the structural and spatial character of the space. The ridge height, raised to six meters, ensures the versatility of its uses.
A contemporary architecture rooted in its territory
The project favors an exposed mass-timber structure, independent from the existing structure and resting on a mineral base. The façades combine timber framing, insulated infill finished with lime render, and larch cladding, in resonance with local traditional buildings such as the pharmacy and the tourist office.
This architectural vocabulary reinterprets vernacular codes in a contemporary language, affirming a material continuity between the existing building, the extension, and the urban context.
The façades develop a structural rhythm that echoes the surrounding half-timbered buildings. Transparency, particularly from the multipurpose room, opens views toward the town center and contributes to making the facility visible within the city.
At ground level, the recessed timber plinth supports the uses of public space: it signals, guides, lights, and shelters, especially during the weekly market, an emblematic moment in local life.
