Paris studio Marchi Architectes has extended a tiny museum in the French village of Biévres and additional a community centre with a series of pitched roofs (+ slideshow).
The project, overseen by the municipality of Biévres, is known as Elderly Hall. It was finished by architects Adélaïde and Nicola Marchi, whose preceding buildings consist of a residence for a pair of art collectors featuring a recessed courtyard, and a blackened timber home extension in a forest.
The architects chose to reference the two the existing museum building and property designs standard throughout the village in the new additions, but added present day specifics and components.
“The mindset of the project is to integrate and transform the classic typologies of a French village in a contemporary way,” architect Nicola Marchi advised Dezeen. “We employed windows with wide proportions and new technologies, as nicely as volumes with pitched roofs to compose uncommon assembly and specifics.”
Built next to a church, the structure involves an addition to the current Musée de l’outil – a museum devoted to conventional trades, with collections of old tools. It also incorporates spaces for elderly residents to meet and socialise, as effectively as a multipurpose space for hosting occasions, exhibitions, and children’s pursuits.
An present construction on a single side of the church was removed to make space for the extension and to open up a path amongst the church and museum that also provides a direct see towards the valley of the Bièvre River.
A part added to the current fabric of the museum extends its pitched roof and the alignment of windows. But the white rendered exterior and grey zinc roof clearly distinguish the old and new structures.
Associated story: Badajoz Fine Arts Museum extensions attribute speckled walls and bevelled edges
The architects had originally specified a neighborhood stone for the buildings’ cladding but the mayor as an alternative requested white surfaces that match residential buildings in the village.
The roof’s tone recalls the slate tiles of the adjacent church, while its flush edges and minimum profile develop a modern aesthetic.
Following to the museum, a single-storey framework includes two multipurpose rooms for use by the church. The rooms can be opened up to kind a single large space if required and are intended largely for children’s actions.
A row of pitched-roof structures at the far finish of the plot accommodate facilities for the village’s elderly residents, including a cafeteria and meeting space.
The spaces attribute long windows and doors that open onto a courtyard flanked on 1 side by present buildings. The eastern facade incorporates even more windows that appear out onto a backyard and towards the valley beyond.
Straightforward white surfaces within help concentrate consideration on views by way of the carefully placed windows. Timber battens covering the ceilings also support to boost the acoustics in the larger rooms.
Photography is by Fernando Guerra.
Floor strategy – click for bigger image 
Cross section – click for greater picture 
Lengthy section – click for bigger image 
