Densifying and restoring the historic center of Bordeaux, building the city on itself without consuming free space, these are the challenges of this project to restore and heighten a former 19th century printing house.
Nestled in the heart of the Saint-Michel district, the stone building becomes the support of a contemporary architectural expression. A Corten steel graft thus continues to write the history of the place without distorting it. The new facades on the street and on the courtyard resume the rhythm of openings of the existing while offering a timeless reading by their proportion and their materiality. The housing units are both part of a constrained existing building and in a new volume seeking an orientation and an optimal habitability by a reverse duplex design.