ÉTOILE VOLTAIRE

The heritage interest of the Voltaire substation is obvious and unique in the urban fabric of Avenue Parmentier. Its largely glazed industrial façade and its riveted iron post and beam structure are the two markers of its historicity. With respect to this existing building, our respectful position consists in inserting ourselves without impacting the structural framework or the historical façade by promoting 100% reversible interventions.

The image reflected today by the building is that of its industrial past, our intention is to adapt it to its cultural mutation.

Densification is one of the challenges of Paris, so building an extension seems obvious. It will be the mark of the new identity of the building. An irregular volume inscribed in the existing proportions of the façade will float above like a landscape. Illuminated at night, it will be a cultural landmark of the neighborhood.

Instilling nature into the project is one of the notable aspects of our proposal, both by stimulating the imagination via a rocky form and by creating a planted setting at the terrace level, a buffer between the old and the new. Thus is born a green parenthesis in the building but also in the mineral avenue Parmentier.

The vegetated terrace is an element of a network of new and atypical places which we have punctuated the project. The hall, always widely open, takes on the unexpected status of a covered public space conducive to the deployment of animations. As for the façade of the extension, it is meshed with balconies and corridors. The smallest space is thus used to create a place of cultural and social hustle and bustle.

We are winners in 2016 for Réinventer Paris.