French architect Dominique Coulon transformed a 17th century villa in the village of Pélissanne into a garden and library for public use By: Florian Heilmeyer Photography: Eugeni Pons Pélissanne is a small community in the South of France with about 10,000 inhabitants The town is distinguished by its dense historic town center cobbled streets are lined by stone buildings with terracotta roof tiles and wooden shutters some of them dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries Walking through the quaint village feels like walking through a postcard Many of the historic townhouses and their gardens are well preserved and cared for Since its former owner wasn’t able to come up with funds for the necessary renovations the house and its beautiful 43,000-square-foot garden was acquired by the municipality transforming the residence into a media library making both the house and its grounds publicly available which occupies a prime location in the town center so an extension of the building into the park was necessary In 2015 Pélissanne held an architectural competition, which was won by Dominique Coulon a French architect based in Strasbourg whose design aimed at preserving as much of the historic park as possible While most of the other participants in the competition placed the extension in front of the existing building This makes the transition from old house to new extension a bit more difficult but preserves almost the full view of the historic facade and thus the connection between the old house and the park the extension creates a lively new public square which connects to the town’s main square in front of the church and the town hall to the West The gesture of moving the extension to the side also preserved a hundred-year-old plane tree around which the new building forms a gentle and expressive curve the renovation retains much of the original layout of the Maureau Villa with its enfilade of smaller rooms The only significant alternations are on the ground floor where the architects created a large space for events and a two-story lobby the extension features wide open spaces on both floors Oversized panorama windows give each floor a clear orientation: While the ground floor opens widely towards Maureau Park to the south allowing readers to immerse themselves in the landscape the first floor is more closed off and intimate looking out the curved window towards the west as if placing the readers in the branches of the plane tree just in front of the giant window The green of the garden is also echoed in the deep green color that appears ion the window shutters and along the wide curved window that embraces the plane tree the town also decided to open up Maureau Park to both sides non-motorized shortcut through the dense historic tissue of Pélissanne It is a splendid example of how a private estate can become so much more valuable when it is accessible to all Would you like to comment on this article? Send your thoughts to: [email protected] Mass timber is poised to transform the built environment but adopting it at scale requires more than just innovation in materials The studio’s Tucson home combines Modernist aesthetics with innovative rainwater collection to tackle resource scarcity the new institute advances vaccine development—including efforts toward an HIV cure Subscribe to our mailing list to receive the latest updates subscription deals delivered straight to your inbox Dominique Coulon and Jean Scherer and the Strasbourg-based Dominique Coulon & associés have designed a new library and media centre to occupy one of the Pélissann’s many historic buildings the classic spatial structure of interconnecting rooms is preserved establishing a simple internal organization of the media library.The extension displays large flexible consultation spaces on two floors.The ground level opens widely onto the park and allows the reader to immerse themselves in the landscape while the upper floor offers a whole different atmosphere.It propels the visitor into the crown of the majestic plane tree in which preservation guided the curved shape of the extension.An adjacent building connecting the town hall square and the park is also renovated and transformed into a passage that links different poles within a global and open urban system.The passage is materialized here by a totally empty space bathed in natural light The tiles of the roof are replaced by glass tiles.The park facade is maintained as it is with its semi-circular porte-cochere.On the town hall side framing of the vegetation of the park.An adjacent building connecting the town hall square and the park is also renovated and transformed into a passage that links different poles within a global and open urban system.The passage is materialized here by a totally empty space bathed in natural light.Existing floors Project: Dominique Coulon & associés Maison Maureau LibraryArchitects: Dominique Coulon & associésDesign Team: Dominique Coulon Yannick SignaniLandscape Architects: Bruno KublerClient: City of PélissannePhotographs: Eugeni Pons Input your search keywords and press Enter You can see how this popup was set up in our step-by-step guide: https://wppopupmaker.com/guides/auto-opening-announcement-popups/ images © eugeni pons the completed project forms a dialogue between two distinct eras and architectural styles the new extension doesn’t seek to dominate the original 17th century building but instead the difference in height creates a visual hierarchy and contrast between new and old the verticality of the renovated mansion juxtaposes with the horizontality of the contemporary volume this distinction is further emphasized by the fenestration and the different shades of local materials used within the existing building, dominique coulon & associés has preserved the classic spatial structure of interconnecting rooms establishing a simple internal organization of the media library the layout of the new extension is arranged around large flexible consultation spaces on two floors the first floor of the extension opens out to the park inviting readers to immerse themselves in the landscape the upper floor offers a totally different experience as it curves around the crown of the tree the preservation of which informed the shape of the new architecture.  the project also involves the renovation of an adjacent building that connects the town hall square and the park this building is now a passage that is materialized here by a totally empty space bathed in natural light the tiles of the roof are replaced by glass tiles the park elevation is maintained as it is with its semi-circular porte-cochere the façade is open over its entire width project name: pierre bottero media library architect: dominique coulon & associés area: 10,570 ft2 (982 m2) + 37,136 ft2 (3,450) m2 landscaping structural engineer: batiserf ingénierie photography: eugeni pons AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style A new statue by Gozitan artist Michael Cutajar Zahra is on its way to southern France after it was commissioned to the artist by St Maurice church in Pélissanne Cutajar Zahra was born in Victoria in 1990 From an early age he showed interest in the work of his father He experimented with different media and from there onwards he showed great artistic abilities he decided to take art as his main career and make a living out of it The artist is very interested in the world of three-dimensional art He says he aspired not only to continue in this line but also to undertake several important art commissions both locally and abroad The artist says the use of art as a bridge to the sacred was one of the more fascinating subjects close to his heart Cutajar Zahra has created several statues commissioned by various churches in Malta and Gozo and for private collections Usually the artist uses terracotta and papier-mâché for full-scale sculptures showcasing his versatility and ability to capture fine details Divinità was his first solo sacred art exhibition at Il-Ħaġar cultural centre in Victoria in 2015 Cyricus and his mother Julitta are venerated as early Christian martyrs They were put to death at Tarsus in AD 304 please register for free or log in to your account.