Residences redevelopment on EAI site

Montpellier, France

MNLhousing
Residences redevelopment on EAI site
Montpellier, France
2018-2024

program: Redevelopment of the former Infantry School into 82 housing
total area: 6,150 sqm
client: Nexity / Agir Promotion / Kalelithos
project: Alfonso Femia / Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia with
structural engineering: Aigoin
services and environmental engineering: Betso
cost control: EGIS
acoustics: Pialot Escande
energy levels and certifications: NF Habitat Label Effinergie Rénovation
images: ©Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia & Diorama
photos: ©S. Anzini
“The building, a constant musical pentagram. A place where rhythm and sequence, being vertical or horizontal, let tell the story it created.”
The building, a constant musical pentagram. A place where rhythm and sequence, being vertical or horizontal, let tell the story it created. Often, and if the building is simple, the rules that compose it are also clear and precise; they build the identity of the place in time.
We are convinced that architecture must read the pre-existing, turn its gaze towards the latter then towards the imaginary in order to write the possible metamorphosis that will turn us from the present into the future. That’s why we believe in the importance to maintain, read again, stage the founding elements of the buildings but also to give him a new soul when life must reinvest and reappropriate the place.
We chose to keep the base sequence (ground-floor – facade – rooftop) defined by horizontal lines that perfectly structure the rules and the proportions. We wanted to highlight the héritage with actions able to tell the dimension and the spaces in which we can find ourselves thanks to astonishment and wonder (the stairs), reflection and light (matter and very high spaces), the perception of the real (the leaned éléments, the openings on the roof).
Respect, dialog, soft metamorphosis. An identity that talks to the nature of the building with a new urban centrality