ADT – Atelier Delalande Tabourin . photos: © Maxime Delvaux
Standing beside a railway line, the existing building of the National Office of Forests of Versailles (l’Office National des Forêts de Versailles) asserts its role in the urban landscape as the point of entry to the state-owned forest.
Our simple idea for the project was to build a pavilion as an extension of an existing building that fits humbly into the forest context and, through its volumetry and materiality, expresses the different occupations of the ONF. The objective was to create new working spaces that met the functional requirements of the brief but that also approached the workplace as a singular spatial and landscaped experience. We designed this pavilion to arouse the curiosity and wonderment of visitors. Whether they are collaborators or just passersby, we want their discovery of this place to be an immersive experience, where every corner is an ode to the skills and expertise of foresters.
This project evokes a wooden sculpture balancing upon several pieces of wood. The proudly standing roof, easily visible from the forest path, becomes the project’s centerpiece. It rises as the preeminent feature, drawing the gaze of the strollers on the forest path, whilst in the background one sees the roofs of the city of Versailles. It is this object that we wanted to emphasize in the landscape, by aiming for a structural balance that strengthens the dialogue with the morphology of the existing, contiguous building.
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