Office > Housing Versailles

The site comprises two commercial buildings from different periods. Despite the lot specification’s recommendation to renovate the street-facing offices and demolish the industrial building set back from the street, our analysis of the existing structures enabled us to propose a strategy for the conservation of the entire complex. HARDEL LE BIHAN is overseeing the refurbishment of the lightbulb factory, whose conversion into student accommodation is justified by qualities that are difficult to match or finance in new-build projects today: high ceilings, grand proportions, generous floor areas, vaulted ceilings, a floor plan that is both symmetrical and perfectly flexible, and durable materials. Elevated and stripped of the extensions added during a previous refurbishment in 2002, the factory will be expanded with new volumes and will house flats opening onto the original nave and its 12-metre-wide internal garden, with duplex flats beneath the existing vaulted ceiling. The landscaping scheme is designed to restore the wooded strips by linking up with the planted spaces in the surrounding neighbourhood.