Rehabilitation
“ Restoring a building does not mean maintaining, repairing or remaking it, it means restoring it to a complete state that may never have existed at any given time, according to Viollet-Le-Duc. ”
“ Restoring a building does not mean maintaining, repairing or remaking it, it means restoring it to a complete state that may never have existed at any given time, according to Viollet-Le-Duc. ”
Viollet-le-Duc, an inspired vision of restoration
Viollet-le-Duc is famous for restoring the spire of Notre-Dame, which had been knocked down in 1792. In the course of this construction project, he reinvented the statues of the portals and the Kings’ Gallery, which had been decimated during the Revolution, because, in his words: “Restoring an edifice does not mean maintaining, repairing or remaking it, it means re-establishing it in a complete state that may never have existed at a given moment.” Bérénice Gaussuin, PhD in architecture, whose book Viollet-le-Duc : La forge d’une théorie de la restauration par la pratique (Viollet-le-Duc: Forging a theory of restoration through practice) has just been published (CNRS Éditions), takes a look at the approach of this extraordinary restorer.
The restructuring of 175 Boulevard Haussmann is an opportunity to become involved in making Paris a resilient and innovative city, one that is capable of renewing and reinventing itself. PCA-STREAM brings together two separate buildings to create a coherent office complex geared toward the well-being of its users and collaborative work. An emblematic contemporary rooftop addition, characterized by its glass scales, acts as a practical and symbolical connector between the various buildings and architectural periods involved.
Located near the Saint-Lazare train station, these new-generation offices in a former military barracks combine the best of two architectural heritages. They offer a comfortable and prestigious workplace, turned towards nature and the well-being of its users, French law firm Gide-Loyrette-Nouel. The building's heritage is magnified and remodeled, enhancing its attractiveness and competitiveness, while helping to write a new page in the history of Paris's ever-changing urban fabric.
PCA-STREAM’s restructuring of 52 Champs-Élysées, the former Virgin Megastore, contributes to renewing the image and attractiveness of the Champs-Élysées. The imposing Streamline Modern Art Deco building gains new coherence thanks to a magnification of its architectural style and a clarification of its program. It will host a Galeries Lafayette department store, high-end offices, and an exceptional garden restaurant overlooking Paris.
In the heart of the Golden Triangle district, at 32–34 Rue Marbeuf, PCA-STREAM is reinventing the iconic Citroën dealership from the 1930s for Gecina, restored to its former glory with rejuvenated original architecture, innovative workspaces, and a full-fledged hanging garden on terraces that open out onto Paris.
At the heart of the Silicon Sentier, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, PCA-STREAM is restructuring an imposing postal building from the 1950s following an ambitious approach both in terms of heritage and the environment. Adaptive reuse has enabled the building to now offer flexible, comfortable, and innovative spaces, complemented by high-end services, as well as exceptional outdoor spaces.
#cloud.paris stems from PCA-STREAM’s research and Société Foncière Lyonnaise’s ambitions. In the time and age of the intangible economy, its inner city location and its versatility coincides with the aspirations of the creative classes and the employees of high value-added industries, which are turning away from the single-use business centers of the periphery. Following heavy restructuring, this urban campus was designed as a relational ecosystem where the collective experience stimulates innovation and productivity.
Which architecture for the ephemeral?
Eric Mangion has been director since 2006, after managing the Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur from 1993 to 2005. His research has long been focused on the artistic gesture of disappearance – in all its forms, from the alteration of the work to the disappearance of the artist. At the Villa Arson, he develops a program around ephemeral practices. He develops here the link between his research topics – the disappearance, the ephemeral, in the art and more generally, in the culture – and the evolution of the architecture.
The Canopy project in Pré-Saint-Gervais is a rehabilitation of a brownfield site in the inner suburbs of Paris that offers next-generation work spaces. This project was first conceived by PCA-STREAM in 2005 but took more than ten years to come into being. The original proposal, which was to transform a former industrial hall in a open plan of atypical and innovative offices for creative businesses, has weathered the subprime mortgage crisis is finally materializing now that a new vision of the workspace has gained in acceptance.
The merger of the four central arrondissements of the French capital, the beating heart of Parisian culture, is embodied in the new administrative hub set up around Square du Temple, with the Paris Centre Town Hall and Police Precinct. PCA-STREAM is adapting, restoring, and revitalizing the Hôtel de la Garantie, a heritage complex from the 1920s, in order to accommodate almost 600 police officers under new, enhanced working conditions.
The former headquarters of the Telegraph, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, offered an exceptional building whose image had been gradually degraded by its successive occupants. PCA-STREAM revamped the site and reinvigorated this heritage property through the installation of new workspaces. An in situ artistic creation also reactivates its intimate links with the history of French telecommunications.
The renovation of this emblematic building in Nantes, the Tour Bretagne, is an opportunity to transform an obsolete symbol of the Trente Glorieuse era by adapting it to the contemporary challenges. PCA-STREAM and MAGNUM reinforce its elegance and slenderness by adding a mixed-use housing program, becoming the precursor of a new era for the city and metropolis.
360 is part of the dynamic revitalization of the Plateau district and the future prospect of a pacification of the ring road. The project rehabilitates three office buildings from the 1980s that no longer meet current needs and expectations. Its remarkable location and accessibility, at the head of the ring road, at the border of Vanves and Paris, invited an ambitious rehabilitation to develop comfortable, efficient and innovative spaces, while adapting the building to contemporary environmental issues.
PCA-STREAM lends new impetus to a banking complex from the late nineteenth century, remarkable by its heritage value but closed on itself and poorly adapted to today’s modern requirements. Through a subdued intervention following a circular approach, the studio has augmented the building with new outdoor spaces, as well as programs and services that are largely porous to the vibrant city life within the district.
PCA-STREAM is conducting the heavy restructuring of a real estate complex designed in the 1960s, tackling the obsolescence of an architecture that offers low-quality spaces in light of the new expectations of businesses. The façade is modernized and realigned on Rue de Penthièvre, and a new wing is formed at the end of the parcel, opening on a vast garden at the heart of the block. The intervention combines densification and the upgrading of workspaces, which are equipped with sunny, green terraces.
In the heart of Les Batignolles, PCA-STREAM is restructuring a former parking lot into a mixed-use complex of hotels, restaurants and offices. Based on the atypical and industrial dimension of the existing building, but also on the cultural and artisanal heritage of the neighborhood, the agency has chosen to infuse it with a spirit that emphasizes innovation and creativity. An emblematic central space physically and symbolically articulates the programs by offering cultural and event-based activities.
PCA-STREAM was the winner of the public competition run by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations for the transformation of the reception areas of its historical headquarters on Rue de Lille, with the aim of streamlining its operations and modernizing its image. This revamping has given PCA-STREAM the opportunity to experiment the full transformational potential of a historic building located right in the heart of Paris, combining concern for the heritage building and contemporary intervention.
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stream voices
Eager to share more generously the results of its collaborations and research, PCA-STREAM publishes STREAM VOICES, its online magazine!