Prize W 2006

The Fondation d'entreprise recently organised a competition for the attention of students and young graduates from European schools of architecture. For this first edition, participants had to come up with a contemporary grafting for the château Barričre in Périgueux (Dordogne - France ) in line with its new use. Listed as a Historical Monument, this castle in ruins is a succession of layers showing the evolutions and the successive transformations at the different eras. The aim was to create a reception area of a surface of between 500 And 600 m˛ for meetings and exhibitions. The Prize W 2006 was awarded to Camille Lescouarch and Hélčne Simonnet who intelligently turned the grafted part into a new stratum, leading on from the previous ones: Gallo-Roman fortifications, Roman then medieval and the residential transformation at the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The project carefully restores the original volumetry on the basis of clear architectural elements such as the previous strata. The new addition conveys both the History and the stories of our era through the use and implementation of contemporary materials and through the presence of a garden.

The interest of the building from an archaeological point of view makes it necessary to maintain the readability of the successive constructions. Due to this, the grafted part slips into the ruin by following its lines. The floors suggest the presence of two rooms on the upper floors. Finally, a gabion tower, stratified with stones of decreasing sizes evokes the different successive bondings of the old château, while facilitating the archaeological reading of the site.

The second edition of the competition has now been launched, this time focusing on a disaffected flour mill in Northern France , one of those many jewels of industrial heritage built in the 19th century. Jean-Michel Wilmotte sees the project as a living space, with a garden, something that is important in the eyes of the inhabitants. The place would keep its memory. There would be a small museum with thematic exhibitions, an art gallery or silos would allow large projections, installations of contemporary artists...