Conversion of a Chinese restaurant into a family home
rue Paul Doumer – Mérignac
Client: private
Gross floor area: 75 m2
Cost: €78 000 tax incl.
Completed: January 2006

This project was the transformation of an Asian food restaurant into a private residential house. It is situated on the outskirts of Bordeaux in Saint-Augustin.
The new building presents itself in the form of an extruded white concrete and corrugated metal sheeting box, measuring 6m in length by 9m deep by 6m tall. Urban planning restrictions stated that is was necessary to create a parking space within the frame of the structure and prohibited the glazing of walls within 4 meters of adjoining properties.
 
The project is expressed by 2 distinct levels:

The ground floor of which a large part was conserved and which echoes the original space before, is home to two bedrooms and the parking area. A new patio measuring 2m x 4m now slices through this ground floor space making it accessible from the street through the gateway with the required parking space conceived like an entrance porch.

The first floor level consists of a metal shell, which wraps around the void of the patio to create the living spaces.
By using a metal frame and metal cladding system it enabled us to fix this new metal structure directly onto the reinforced concrete roof terrace using only 4 points.

Inside, all the metalwork including the profiled metal sheeting were left visible. The existing parapet was high enough to accommodate all the electric cabling necessary and the heating system using only a plywood double skin. The central patio allows natural lighting and ventilation throughout and generates not only views between the internal and external spaces but also towards the sky from all parts of the house.

In contrary to the blind party wall a south facing glazed band has been cut bringing light into all the living spaces.

This house combines an external transitional space with the street, an intimate space contained within the existing space with a new living space open and bright. The central void that extends towards the street is the articulation point, the house fitting together around it.