Building new sociable places into rural territories

For a long time, rural territories stayed far away from architectural and political consideration. In the second half of the twentieth century, the car and the TV radically changed the way of life of the countryside’s inhabitants. The transformation of an abandoned farm in the town center gives us the possibility to create a new sociable place. The old house becomes the common house of Siewiller, hosting some public services (office for social services, a small library, a multipurpose room). It becomes a place that every inhabitant can use for some events. The inner courtyard, open on all peripheral spaces, extends the concept of common house by a shared outside space. The metamorphosis of an old farm into a place where everyone live daily is a way to push this heritage into the future.

The local resources, a global issue

The overall project was complex due to the variety of interventions, from the new building to the simple reuse of an existing space. However, they are all done in a unique direction, using some local resources and involving local economic agents. The wood structure, the straw for insulation, the hemp concrete or the lime concrete can be produced in a small perimeter (50km). Some local agent can be implied, linking the people affect into the transformation of the town centre, as much as a way to reduce carbon emission and environmental impact. The project belongs as much to a local situation as to a more global direction to take in the French countryside.

Architectural language as a historical continuity

The architectural language takes an active part to the revitalization of the town center. Without any dogmatic statement the project emphasizes the qualities of the existing building. In some point, it will just insert new uses into old spaces, in some other, solely a wall or a casing will be kept. The project builds a continuity between a previous and a future state without any “tabula rasa”. It avoids a strong breaking, using the existing building in a pragmatic way, and building the new ones with strong references to the architectural language of the close environment. The wood column superimposed on a stone foot or the colonnade belongs to the traditional figures of the region. The project tries to make inhabitants feeling familiar to the metamorphose of their town center.