Reimagining a piece of Parisian heritage

Project: Law Faculty Université-Paris I, Renovation of the Lourcine Barracks, Paris (13th) Architects: Chartier Dalix Architects, Paris

Building a ‘city on a city’ has long been the standard approach to urban renewal. Modernity has largely ignored and further complicated this practice that is now coming back all the more strongly, due to the economic realities of construction being challenged by the severity of environmental issues. Rehabilitating and preserving existing buildings, even over and above considerations of heritage, is becoming a viable means of saving energy and sobriety, a source of reusable materials, and a great opportunity to discover new uses resulting from conversion. Entering a building with its past life and history and its previous uses, means imagining new stories to tell based on older tales and the richness of their promise. That is why we like to use the term ‘Metamorphosis’ rather than rehabilitation; for us, it means building on the old to create something new and richer still, than what might have been preserved.

The project to transform the Lourcine barracks in the 13th Arrondissement of Paris is ambitious and innovative, due to its scale and, above all, to the new relationship it creates with the existing buildings. In the heart of a very built-up and innervated district, where the barracks had hitherto formed a distinct area, opening up the site to its immediate environment helps to tell these new stories. This evolution is based on an approach to the redevelopment of Parisian heritage, which in this case is envisaged not so much as a museum exhibit frozen in time, but as a means of regenerating the city, capable of breathing new life into the district.

A military site at the heart of urban planning in 20th century Paris