Multi-purpose hall in Châteaufort

Michel Denance

• Interior Architects

In the former service quarters of the château of the Domaine d'Ors, in the heartof a vast natural reserve, the architect Leo Berellini has completed theconstruction of a new multi-purpose hall for the town of Châteaufort.

The new multi-purpose hall is associated with an important heritage site including a mill, achapel, an orangery, and other edifices positioned around the park. Situated just outside thetown, the site extends over an area of 5 hectares, in the middle of nature, next to theprotected natural reserve of the Merantaise Valley.

The service quarters of the château are comprised of three buildings arranged in a “U” shapearound a 600m² grand courtyard, oriented south. A protected wooded area surrounds thesite. The new extension stands to the north, in a clearing behind the building.

photo_credit Michel Denance — Michel Denance

The project aim is discretion. It blends perfectly into the green surroundings. It exists inharmony alongside the service quarters of the château, which have their own charms. Thenew hall nestles into the slope of the terrain, discreetly covered by a green roof in continuitywith the clearing. It is positioned on the axis of the building, respecting its symmetry.

The longitudinal walls are designed and built with rammed earth, as if the side of the hill hadbeen cut away, exposing its entrails, and thereby the stratigraphy of its geological layers aswell. What material could have better integrated into the site than its own soil, worked intostrata, without altering its texture or colour?

The supporting rammed earth walls are lined on the inside with a 20cm-thick layer of pouredhempcrete, left exposed and affixed to the rammed earth walls with wooden studsembedded in the thickness of this lining.

During the design phase, all the architectural elements were carefully evaluated in order topush their thermal characteristics to their maximum capacities.