Mission Pop reworks a former horticultural farm in St-Malo, France, as a second residence that retains the positioning’s most susceptible construction. Designed in 2023 by Agence LBA, the home pairs a preserved 1922 concrete constructing for the principle residing areas with a stone barn for 4 extra bedrooms, permitting the property to serve a pair or collect the broader household.
About Mission Pop
Mission Pop begins with a refusal to demolish. At a former horticultural farm in St-Malo, Agence LBA retains a two-story, flat-roofed constructing from 1922 that was supposed for removing. Its concrete building stands reverse a stone barn with a slate roof, the 2 buildings framing a big courtyard and offering the capability for a household second residence.
The choice retains the final surviving witness to the neighborhood’s horticultural previous, the place flowers have been grown a century in the past. It additionally makes sensible use of beneficiant current volumes that might not be recreated beneath present planning constraints within the protected space. Adaptive reuse turns into each an act of conservation and the challenge’s architectural basis.
The Present Construction Takes Precedence
The 1922 quantity retains its columns, beams, concrete flooring, and ceilings. Agence LBA brings this framework to the foreground, revealing the expressive structural grid that rendered and stone-clad surfaces had partly hid. Inside, the association of the principle residing areas follows that order, making the constructing’s authentic building legible moderately than masking it with a brand new inside shell.
That logic extends throughout the façades. The uncovered concrete establishes a gradual rhythm of openings, with glazing filling some bays and timber cladding closing others. One portion of the courtyard-facing wing is opened fully, permitting the body itself to outline the sting of the constructing.
A Glazed Hyperlink Reshapes the Courtyard
The glass hall becoming a member of the 2 buildings introduces a sensible connection however interrupts the direct relationship between the out of doors areas. Opening a part of the dealing with wing addresses that constraint whereas uncovering concrete beforehand hidden behind the façade. The intervention offers the courtyard a clearer connection to the development of the previous farm with out making an attempt to make its two buildings look alike.
Room for Household, Now and Later
Every day life for the couple occupies the principle residing areas throughout the extra intimate 1922 constructing. When the household gathers, the barn gives 4 extra bedrooms. This division lets the property increase and contract with its occupants, whereas preserving the distinct scale and character of every construction.
The association additionally anticipates longer-term change. Each the structure and this system permit the barn to change into an impartial unit sooner or later. Mission Pop subsequently treats preservation as an energetic framework: the outdated horticultural buildings stay recognizable, but their relationship helps completely different patterns of household use over time.
Images by Olivier Jourdain
Go to Agence LBA
– by Matt Watts
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