The Sablonceaux cemetery extension project represented for us the first opportunity to intervene on a protected site. A way to reaffirmour point of view on an located architecture, able to jostle and surprise while respectfully insert in its context. An architecture that is both touching and expressive.

The project is located at the foot of the Abbey, in the extension of the old cemetery. On a sloping ground towards a river, in a close relationship with the territory, it seeks to integrated elicately without modifying the topography. Thus, the new cemetery can beread like a line in the landscape, a new stratum.

The constructed elements come to underline the Abbey. The use of “site concrete” constitutes the link between our intervention and the existing one. We want to establish a continuity in the materials, based on their expressive truth.

Go for the lime stone where the stones of the Abbey could be extracted. Use it differently, in a contemporary way. Draw inside the memory of the place. These walls mark the new entrance and invite you to contemplate from a new angle the monument. A course is defined around it, accentuated by the declivity of the field. Inside, the columbarium rises in front of us, hiding and revealing the existing wall, in a game of depths and rhythms that highlights the present stone, the passing time.

An elevated platform, like a promontory on the landscape, establishes the transition between the old cemetery and its extension. Inside it that the Jardin des Souvenirs takes place. It becomes a place of singular meditation, held by the expressive force of the concrete sails. A privileged place to contemplate the landscape running away, seek a horizon in the Charente plain, a position to think about the paths traveled.