La Rochelle

Fétilly

La Rochelle, France 

 Client: Kaufman & Broad
Surface: 9 658m² (building)
Status: Completed 2021
Environmental performance: HPE Renovation Label + RT2012

Program: Mixed-use program across 2 buildings, featuring 49 housing units and 110 senior apartments , (RPA - new building), 37 social housing units (rehabilitated building),

 The site is located north of the historic center of La Rochelle, in the Fétilly district.

The project takes place on the site of the former marshes that once surrounded the City of La Rochelle, where Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu carried out the famous siege of the city from 1627 to 1628. The site was subsequently backfilled in the 20th century to construct the city’s administrative center (Fétilly district), creating a rupture in the existing landscape and waterscape continuity with a significant ground surface area dedicated to parking.

The project proposes to rediscover a landscape, waterscape including biodiversity ( bird route) layout that integrates into a larger territory stretching from the marshes to the sea. A reconfiguration proposal for the complex was put forward for the three other existing administrative buildings. T

he prefabricated concrete administrative building construction is transformed into residential buildings, and all the concrete slab ground treatment is removed to restore a landscaped layout that re-establishes the site’s vegetative continuity, notably connecting with the coulée verte (greenway) of Parc Charruyer. It is an exceptional site, with a rich history tied to the landscape of canals and marshes that existed in this area prior to the urban development of La Rochelle.

The completed project includes the rehabilitation of one of the former commercial buildings of the La Rochelle Chamber of Agriculture, built in the 1970’s, with the aim of creating 49 social housing units across 5 floors. An extension dedicated to senior residences, featuring 110 housing units, is established along Avenue du 11 Novembre 1918 and defines the edge of the Rond-point de la Légion d’Honneur, which is lined with remarkable cedar trees.