Tourist Office and communal wood canopy, Val D’ajol -Vosges Mountains | 2024 | Arnaud Backer, France

Category: Mixed Use Buildings
Project Location: France
Architect: Arnaud Backer, France
Design Team: mayker architectes: Arnaud Backer & Gilles Meyer, Benjamin Puitg
Other: Associate architects: faire sens, bet: I4 ingenierie, terranergie, C2bi, dB silence, fluidit
Photographer: mayker architectes, fairesens, galerie blanche

Val d'Ajol is the main city in the forest of the Vosges Mountains, in the East of France.

The City wishes to transform its old presbytery, too large for the parish, by a mixed program including a tourist office.

The project suggests to renovate the historic building with healthy and biosourced materials to achieve a passive level of performance.

The intervention mainly concerns the magnificent garden of the presbytery, hidden behind a surrounding wall that separates public space and church. The addition of a new canopy and a main opening allows the project to be signaled on the public space, in a staging reminiscent of the Vosges green theaters. The canopy that encircle the garden reinterprets the figure of the cloister, in connection with the religious character of the site.

The project is built with local resources like wood from the municipality or stones from nearby quarries.