Edgar

For the past three hundred years, Martell has conserved commercial registers, old books, bottles, and works of art. To showcase this legacy, two archival areas are installed within a former chai located along the discovery visit. Visitors are pleasantly surprised by the lighting activated by their presence, staged behind a window. They then access the display room, with its six bookshelves niched between stone vaults. At the centre, the archivist presents the precious documents on a long calamine-on-steel table, coated with white thermo-lacquered steel. This principle assumes a folded form on the steel shelves of the bookshelves: slightly detached shelf-covers protect the calamine from the handling of Cauchard boxes and leather compendiums. The curve of the underside of the bookshelves recalls that of the sandblasted vaults, reflecting the light right down to the exposed concrete floor. In the background, the conservation area is inaccessible, keeping the contents of its mobile shelves a mystery. The stark white lighting is even more distinctive. The technical details are cleverly concealed. The air from the extraction unit on the ceiling is sucked through the double-framed door of the machine room and the structural supports in the basement (each bookshelf weighs 2.5 tonnes) remain invisible. Collaboration after collaboration, a vocabulary and its spatial codes variously unfold to strengthen the architectural identity of the brand.

Martell wishes to showcase its three-hundred-year history and expertise through a tasting room where master blenders will work in front of an informed audience. A wine and spirits storehouse accommodates the project, an architectural setting with a strong identity: floor in rough concrete, thick walls covered in black mushrooms (torulas), a thin metal framework, with copper stills and oak barrels stored on site. In the centre of the space, the new tasting room skims the steel structure, nestled between four existing posts, and set slightly above the floor. The project is designed as an assemblage of materials, echoing the craftsmanship of the cellar masters who compose the vintages. Its minimalist silhouette takes advantage of the low lighting and silence, well suited to the ritual character of tasting. Two monumental doors welcome the visitors within the thirty-one-tonne structure in raw steel, coated with calamine. The cellar masters reveal their art and explain the menu of vintages set into a tasting table made of balanced layers of sheet steel, with a matte white surface on top to enhance the amber hues of the cognac that are also reflected in a copper chandelier. The work on the lighting reinforces the impact of the architecture, designed as an initiatory pathway: showcasing the roughness of the walls, unveiling the barrels, the room, and then the oak cognac library, as a backdrop.

Edgar has provided the project management of technical lots for the permanent exhibition visit of the Martell House in Cognac, assisting and advising the scenographer, Nathalie Crinière. Designed prior to their intervention, three pathways are provided: ‘Heritage’ visits the archives, history, and development of the House of Cognac since its foundation by Jean Martell in 1715; ‘Expertise’ sets out to discover some of the experts who create the spirits (coopers, chai masters, farmers, etc.); and ‘The Angels’ Share’ is a multisensorial pathway with interactive installations. The architects’ role, deliberately undertaken behind the scenes, consisted of handling the administrative (building permit application), safety (fire safety, negotiations with the control office), and heritage aspects (talks with the architect from Bâtiments de France, respect of the historical elements). Involved in the phase for the Dossier de Consultation des Entreprises (DCE), Edgar had to meet technical challenges to ensure the project was feasible without affecting its initial aesthetic. The architects thus applied their expertise to adapting and providing solutions that would respect the site and the regulations, while remaining discreet so as to prioritise the immersive dimension of the visit.

The town hall of Tarnos wished to bring together the children of two schools within a single recreation centre located halfway between the two, in a low-rise area, along a path of plane trees. Social workers, coordinators, children, and administrative staff will settle into an adapted local facility, open to families. To optimise the budget, the long and compact building is maintained by a grid of porticoes, whose kinetic effect echoes the lines of the tree trunks. The project is based on a cross-shaped plan, serving the programmatic elements illuminated by two patios. The entrance forms a centre from which the adults’ area develops (main office and pedagogical staff management) on the street side, and that of the children on the garden and sports field side. The activity rooms can connect to form a long nave thanks to movable walls, making the spaces versatile. The volume of the building is inspired by local vernacular architecture, particularly Landaise houses, in order to better integrate within its context. Regionalist architectural principles are transposed in a contemporary architecture whose green roofing with eaves optimises the building’s thermic performance and its comfort in summer. The facade alternates framed windows and padded walls adorned with green-enamelled terracotta plates incorporating the local motif of fern fronds.

The social housing rental company Domofrance would like to apply a planning permit in the suburban fabric of Parempuyre, a peripheral suburb of Bordeaux. The project for rental social housing is developed according to a principle of strips of housing. By questioning the urban form, working on various scenarios, fifteen individual houses grouped together and three apartment building establish a composition that respects the scale of the existing buildings and plays on a multiplicity of identities within a homogenous framework. An economy of means dictates the architectural work, which deploys standard elements while seeking to vary their effects. Micro shifts in positioning bring the overall plan to life, two windows combined create larger openings, while loggias allow for an array of solid constructions and empty spaces. The colorimetric variations of the facades and interplay of roofing styles provides the scale of a new neighbourhood while ensuring the density sought by the city council. The architecture is founded on system variations to provide a domestic scale in which vegetation and buildings enter into a conversation, in a reinterpretation of the typology of urban houses.

Le terrain se situe dans un quartier pavillonnaire du Pizou et accueillait jusqu’à sa démolition en 2016 un bâtiment de 24 logements collectifs. La parcelle est bordée à l’ouest par un terrain de football et un boulodrome, au nord, à l’est et au sud par des maisons individuelles. Les toitures de cette architecture locale sont majoritairement à deux pans et leurs différentes hauteurs apportent des variations et du rythme à l’ensemble. Les matérialités sont traduites par des tuiles romanes en toiture et des façades enduites en teintes claires. Quelques arbres sont présents sur la parcelle, des cyprès et un sapin. Les six maisons de plain-pied (5 T3 et 1 T4) sont disposées via un système de logements en bandes permettant à la fois une certaine densité tout en limitant les vis-à-vis. Les maisons fonctionnent par deux et sont accolées par le garage. Chacune profite d’un jardin et d’une terrasse orientés sud-ouest. Les cinq T3 sont disposés à gauche et le T4 à droite, profitant ainsi d’un plus grand jardin. Chaque logement est composé de trois bandes (garage - pièces de vie - pièces de nuit et d’eau). A l’intérieur, une entrée avec placard dessert le séjour. La cuisine communique avec la pièce de vie et donne accès à la buanderie via une porte coulissante. Le séjour est systématiquement prolongé par une terrasse de 10m² accessible via une large baie vitrée. La bande pièce de vie dessert via un dégagement la bande pièces de nuit et d’eau, optimisée afin de limiter au maximum l’espace de circulation. La volumétrie est à l’échelle de ce quartier où les bandes pièces de vie et de nuit sont surplombées d’une toiture à 1 pan dont les hauteurs varient légèrement à l’image des constructions environnantes. Les garages sont quant à eux en structure légère et toiture plate type bac acier. Cette succession de volumes apporte une dynamique et un rythme à l’ensemble

“Modjo” is a gourmet restaurant for two young talented chefs, Quentin Maurouard and Benoît Gofron, based in downtown Bordeaux since 2018. The flavour combinations in their culinary creations and their way of dressing their plates guided the design of the project, a subtle mix of inexpensive materials and straightforward execution, to give a warm bistro atmosphere to a former sushi restaurant. On a tight budget, the chefs participated in the demolition and creation of the venue, encouraging Edgar to develop less technical principles of execution. Designing a project for self-construction obliged the architects to didactically guide all of the phases of work, thinking through each detail with concern for budgeting and simplicity. To render the site unique, the principle of energy that lends its name to the restaurant is illustrated in the pieces of entangled oak that are arranged on the mallard-blue ceiling, designed in association with graphic designer Florence Esnault Gillon. The soothing quality of the wood, the coils of the sculpture, and the dimly lit atmosphere of the restaurant gently introduce the architectural and culinary experience.

A couple with two children returned from China and purchased a stone échoppe (a typical Bordelese townhouse) that had been raised in the 1970s and split into two apartments. Poorly handled owing to the many annexes and verandas erected over time, the house needed to recover its unity. A concrete staircase reconnects the two levels, the garden constructions were demolished to make way for a sustained, legible, and bright extension. Its rough concrete column/post structure opens onto the north-facing garden, where the volume finds light through large openings with wooden frameworks and through a central skylight, achieved by reversing the geometric gridwork of the ceiling. The new living room revises the spatial expression of the house, like the missing piece of a puzzle that has finally been found.

A young couple left Paris for the Bordelese region. Their future home, which needed to accommodate their workspace for musical production, was on the site of a house in lower Floirac on a plot at risk of flooding. The interior was dimly lit and narrow, heavily partitioned and poorly oriented; the exterior boasted a pleasant garden. Recovering light and spatiality were some of the specifications for the renovation. The ground floor was transformed into a large living area directed towards the outdoors, the kitchen niched alongside a straight staircase in wood and concrete leading to a new mezzanine floor that served as the dedicated workspace. The wooden skeleton of the raised section rests on the floor, since the existing walls are not able to bear the load. Its cladding in anthracite zinc weatherboarding extends the facade of the ground-floor level, repainted blue. The modest budget meant leaving the finishing touches to the owners who would later install the baseboards, leaving the screed raw and progressively furnishing their space. During the renovations, a child was due: the project was redesigned to transform the upper level into a bedroom and office.

A stone échoppe (a typical Bordelese townhouse) inhabited by a family with two children lacks a bedroom. The veranda is dilapidated. The regulations do not allow the facade facing the boulevards to be modified. To enlarge and adapt the house while preserving its spatial qualities and luminosity, an elevation on the garden side is placed in continuity with the existing roof structure. Once the double height has been created, a transitional volume between interior and exterior, the ground floor and the first floor, is fitted with a brushed steel staircase that is applied to the full length of the facade with windows. The renovated living room opens onto the garden via a large sliding glass door. From the exterior, the new facade combines constructive elements borrowed from industrial vocabulary, such as the IPN steel and glass, with a stone-coloured brick decoration, recalling the neighbouring shops.

A couple of young retirees left their apartment in the downtown area to move into a house with a garden in a residential neighbourhood of Bordeaux. The new owners wanted to metamorphose the ground floor, de-compartmentalising it and opening it up to the exterior. The lower part of the house would be their living area. Upstairs, occasionally occupied by family and friends, would be left as it was. The openings made in the bearing points and the metal structure section off the space of a new area comprising kitchen, lounge, and dining room. The modifications to the existing structure are painted green, echoing the lush garden and the exterior weatherboarding. The arrangement of the custom furniture connects the various functions, progressively shifting from one use to another. The storage in the kitchen becomes bookshelves. In the bedroom, the access to the bathroom is through one of the closet doors.

Le projet consiste en la rénovation et l’extension d’une maison individuelle à Talence, la construction d’une piscine et son pool-house, du réaménagement paysager du Jardin avant et arrière, ainsi que les construction de nouvelles clôtures tout autour de la maison. La maison existante, datant des années 1970 est en retrait de la rue et non-miyoenne, permettant de garer une voiture devant la maison et d’en faire le tour. L’extension, côté jardin, accueillera les nouvelles pièces de vie de la maison (cuisine, salon, salle à manger) et sera simplement liée à l’ancienne maison par un sas vitré sur un entre-deux végétalisé. L’ancienne maison, rénovée, accueillera les pièces de nuits et les espaces techniques de la maisons (chambres, dressing, salles de bain, WC, cellier). L’extension, le Poolhouse et les nouveaux murs de clotures cadrent un nouveau «jardin patio» végatalisé avec piscine et Pool-house, créant un nouvel univers pour s’échapper de la ville.

Cette maison est destinée à accueillir une jeune famille avec ses deux enfants dans un hameaux au coeur d’un paysage forestier de Gironde. La maison s’organise en deux bandes parallèles dont la volumétrie archétypale de maison s’inspire des constructions environnantes. Le premier volume est destiné à la vie familiale avec un grand salon ouvert sur la cuisine et la grande table pour manger. L’autre volume est destiné aux pièces de nuit et à la chambre d’amis qui fait aussi office de bureau. Les deux volumes sont reliés et séparé par une troisième bande technique qui concentre l’entrée, la buanderie, le cellier et toutes les pièces d’eau de la maison. Le fait d’avoir scindé le programme de la maison en plusieurs volumes permet d’inscrire en délicatesse la maison dans le paysage environnant, tout en cadrant des vues sur le paysage forestier vallonné proche et lointain.

De retour dans la région Nouvelle-Aquitaine après plusieurs années passées dans les Haut-de-France, un couple et ses trois enfants décident d’acquérir une grande parcelle arborée à Jonzac afin d’y implanter une maison reflétant leur mode de vie. Souhaitant une maison unique, ils imaginent une maison plus ouverte sur le paysage et adapté à leur vie de famille. Nous avons donc proposé une maison de forme simple, rectangulaire, en longueur, permettant d’exploiter une structure rationnelle et économique. Nous avons pris le parti de travailler une base maçonnée avec parpaing intérieur apparent isolé par l’extérieur, béton apparent au sol, et une charpente en acier. Ainsi, nous pouvons ouvrir très largement l’une des deux grandes façades de la maison avec des menuiseries extérieurs en aluminium. Le bardage et la toiture de la maison seront en tôle ondulée d’acier galvanisé, reflétant la végétation dense de l’environnement proche. Un large débord de toiture permettra de gérer les apports solaires. A l’intérieur, la maison est organisé autour d’un espace commun ouvert avec cuisine, salle à manger et salon. De part-et-d’autre sont organisés deux espaces prenant le forme de deux blocs de contreplaqué, l’un pour les enfants (trois chambres, une salle de bain, un bureau et un débarras), et l’autre pour les parents (chambre avec dressing et salle de bain, WC et entrée). Toutes les pièces communiquent ainsi grâce à de larges portes coulissantes en contreplaqué sur une circulation commune longeant la paroi vitrée qui s’ouvre sur le jardin. L’ouverture sur le paysage devient le fil d’Ariane le long duquel les enfants voulaient déambuler à vélo.

A couple nearing retirement age plans to build a second home that will soon become their main residence. In the south of the resort town of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie (Vendée, France), the project is established on a sloping section, at the intersection of two streets. Built up against its neighbours at the top of the plot, the house opens onto the canopies of trees from the green belt leading to the ocean below. The U-shaped plan is composed around a central space opening onto the landscape, a vast living area with a kitchen, lounge, and dining room. The two wings contain the parental quarters (bedroom, office, and bathroom) and that of their architect children who occasionally occupy two bedrooms, an office, a bathroom, and toilets. Sheltered from prevailing winds on three sides of the building, a generous, partly covered terrace accommodates al fresco dining in summer and leads to a swimming pool. Its pine slats placed on the same level as the floor of the house ensure the continuity between interior and exterior. The construction in white float-finish stucco echoes the simplicity of traditional houses on the Vendée Coast. This simplicity continues inside, through the light-grey woodwork and white walls that emphasise the light oak tone of the parquet floor.