ROUEN Océanite

Celia Berdy

The Salvation Army runs a social housing residency since 1935 in the 19th century private mansion of the center of Rouen, in French Normandy. The building also hosts a christian community center focused on helping people in need with food supply, clothing and a large number of day-to-day activities.

The lot, in the center of the city has been transformed several times in the past and includes extensions in the back yard of different eras. Most of these were not founded sufficiently profoundly and had started crumbling dangerously in the 2010's.
studaré had the brief of redesigning and completely renovating the entirety of the buildings, including the deconstruction of the most damaged elements. This restructuration aims to create eight new flats to the existing sixteen, setting our sights on homogeneising all flat surfaces to 20sqm minimum.

The design process started with the main constrain of preserving the original lay out and structure of the private mansion, revealing spatial features that were hidden from previous interior works and key elements such as the common room or the majestic staircase. All while adapting the functionality and norms with accesbility by the construction of an evelator, the installation of insulation and ventilation and the strict distinction between public and private areas for fire safety. Each studio flat and all common spaces have been co-designed with the inhabitants.

A new extenstion creates new façades in the interior courtyard, designed for the visual connexion from old to recent industrial materials. Hence the meeting of corrugated iron and bricks, reused from the demolition in situ. A deep blue becomes the new contemporary visual element, from the Salvation Army visual scheme, connecting all apertures, doors and windows on all façades, bricks, iron or stone for the street historic side. Old brick façades are also visible inside the new extension, where new rooms were added directly on the former external walls.

Project Gallery

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Celia Berdy FR

http://www.studare.fr
Rue Du Colonel Moll | 75017 Paris