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Architecture

Le Magasin Électrique, Atelier Luma

in Architecture Comment

Le Magasin Électrique, Atelier Luma with Assemble and BC Architects & Studies 002

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Le Magasin Électrique, Atelier Luma with Assemble and BC Architects & Studies 004

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Le Magasin Électrique
Atelier Luma with Assemble and BC Architects & Studies

Sunflowers, salt and algae are among the biomaterials used to complete Le Magasin Électrique, the workspace of circular-design lab Atelier Luma that it self-designed with studios Assemble and BC Architects & Studies.

Based at Luma Arles arts centre in France, Le Magasin Électrique occupies a former industrial building and contains laboratories that now serve as Atelier Luma’s primary workplace.

Atelier Luma, Assemble and BC Architects & Studies’ design is defined by an unusual palette of materials made from locally sourced bio-waste, various by-products and other under-valued materials.

It aims to embody Atelier Luma’s “bioregional approach” to design, which is a term it uses to describe its transformation of resources from the surrounding region into innovative, low-carbon building products. For Atelier Luma, this “bioregion” covers a 70-kilometre radius and includes the Camargue wetlands, the Alpilles mountain range and the Crau flat plains.

Dezeen

Chateau Landon by Theo Domini

in Architecture Comment

Chateau Landon, Paris, France by Theo Domini 001

Chateau Landon, Paris, France by Theo Domini 002

Chateau Landon, Paris, France by Theo Domini 003

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Chateau Landon, Paris, France by Theo Domini 009

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Chateau Landon, Paris, France by Theo Domini

The view is breathtaking. From the windows of the fifth floor of this large Haussmanian building, we overlook one of the most spectacular landscapes of Paris. Every evening, the sun crashes down on this sumptuous horizon and creates an atmosphere that enhances the image of the city a little more. This anachronistic experience that arises from the encounter between the architecture of a 19th century Paris with these supernatural lights was one of the starting points of the project.

Named after the street that houses it, the Chateau Landon project questions what it means to appropriate an existing place. The residence is designed as much as a protective screen for the privacy of its inhabitants as well as a belvedere overlooking this striking landscape.

Inside, the radical abstraction of the steel surfaces contrasts with plasters faded by 100 years of history. They unite and coexist to enhance the sublime event they face.

The environment celebrates the simple pleasures of everyday life and intensifies the experience of basic necessities.

The surfaces guide the gaze instead of stopping it, they free themselves from domestic references which constrain and limit the imagination. It is about questioning one’s own feelings, not according to habits, but on the basis of a spontaneous reaction, out of all time, which comes from desire, from life itself. This approach involves replacing the accumulation of objects with relationships, human, physical, sensitive. First eliminate, then produce comfort.

Inside, the very notion of door, handle is annihilated. Imperceptibly, we pass from bright rooms to a warm and modulated half-light where the softness of the materials dominates.

Everything is a matter of gradation and suggestive limits, the frontier of spaces, never well closed, exasperates curiosity. They oscillate from the grandiose to the Spartan and find their comfort in their serenity, in their charm. It’s not intimidating, it’s not dripping with luxury. It’s something very peaceful, almost friendly where the thickness of the history permeates the project without ever subduing it.

theodomini.com