The intervention is carried out on a former stable and hayloft linked to a pre-existing dwelling, now conceived as an autonomous piece within the ensemble. The building is redefined as a pavilion for collective use, without a fixed program or permanent occupation, capable of hosting gatherings, celebrations, and a variety of activities. This programmatic indeterminacy is key to the building’s rehabilitation, as it allows the technical performance to be adjusted to a real and flexible use, avoiding processes of regularization or over-technification that would have substantially altered its constructive character. Natural ventilation, filtered light, and environmental variation become active components of the architectural experience.

Reading the building as a constructive palimpsest is one of the project’s points of departure. The masonry walls, the different types of openings, and the superimposed structural solutions reveal a construction that has evolved progressively over time. Rather than concealing these traces, the intervention incorporates them as an essential part of the building’s identity, understanding the existing architecture as a structure open to transformation, capable of accommodating new uses without losing the memory of its previous processes.

The roof concentrates the project’s main constructive operation. A structural solution is proposed that fully frees the interior space, avoiding trusses and intermediate supports. A ridge beam integrating a stainless-steel tie working in tension allows a span of up to 15 meters to be bridged. From this beam spring the timber joists, which bear directly on the longitudinal load-bearing walls and on the ridge beam itself, configuring a structural system that is clear, legible, and consistent with the character of the existing building. The system dispenses with superfluous layers, leaving the underside of the tiles exposed to the interior, so that the construction process itself becomes fully intelligible and participates in the spatial definition of the pavilion.

In this context, the roof becomes an interface mediating between a controlled environment and the natural conditions of the site. The tile ceases to function as a finishing element and assumes a central role in the construction of space, acting both as a device that shapes atmosphere and as a support for incorporating the temporal variable into the architectural experience.

The incorporation of continuous surfaces of glass tiles within the same roofing system introduces variations of light and transparency that construct a vibrant, changing sky, reinforcing the intermediate condition of the space between interior and exterior. The limestone cobblestone pavement, treated as an exterior ground surface, links the building to the surrounding karst landscape and helps to blur the boundaries between enclosure and immediate context.

The project thus proposes a form of rehabilitation based on constructive precision and conceptual clarity, in which the intervention does not seek to correct or homogenize what exists, but to activate its spatial and environmental potential. Architecture acts as a mediator between matter and light, between past and present, proposing an open, flexible space capable of accommodating new forms of collective use through an attentive and respectful reading of the built fabric.

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The blocks for the top floor, bearing less load, are made of 100% lime concrete, while the rest of the floors combine lime with cement. These blocks, approximately 135 cm long, 42 cm high, and with variable widths for each floor (64, 54, 44, and 34 cm), were prefabricated once the demolition was completed, before commencing the construction of the new building. This approach significantly reduced the construction duration. The blocks were stacked to build load-bearing walls perpendicular to the street, supporting cross-laminated timber ceilings. On each floor, the walls reduce in thickness by 10 cm, allowing direct support of the timber panels, facilitating the speed of execution of the entire structure.

Perpendicular to the main walls, 13 cm thick partition walls, constructed with the same cyclopean concrete and resulting from cutting a 60 cm wide block into four 13 cm sections, tie the structure of the entire building, together with the stair and elevator core.

The entire spatial and programmatic organization of the building responds to the described structural system; the floor plan is organized with a stair core in the corner, providing access to a walkway in the interior garden, from where each apartment is accessed—all are through apartments except those on the semi-basement floor, which, like those on the attic floor, have half the depth of the typical floors and utilize two structural spans for each apartment. The top-floor apartments have large terraces. Each floor also has a communal area (laundry room, lounges, etc.). The façade starkly displays the structural system: the end walls (vertical) of the prefabricated block walls, which decrease in height on each floor and support the timber (horizontal) ceilings, and, as the façade of each apartment, floor-to-ceiling wooden balconies with a lateral opaque strip and Venetian blinds to protect from the eastern and western sun.

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The presence of two architectural elements on the upper elevation highlights the construction: To the north, a volume in silvered glass houses the garage and the entrance hall of the house. To the south, resting on the angle of the ground floor façade, a white, opaque, low, square box-shaped volume protects and forms a porch area that extends the living space to the exterior.

These two elements, contrasting in terms of geometry and materials, rest on different parts of the garden which fills the entire plot, and reorganise the relationship of the land and its exisiting structures (stone walls, neighbouring buildings) with the landscape.

The absence of a visible construction, enhanced by the reflection of the mirrored body which punctuates the plot’s geometrical centre, contrasts with the generosity of the interior spaces which are discovered as one climbs down, revealing a typologically recognisable house.

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A politically committed and militant project!

The nucleus is resolved by using a wall of compacted earth blocks (CEB). The block is distributed through 3 large units adapted to the program; it generates open spaces for storage or facilities, enclosed spaces with their own program, and passage spaces that interconnect or separate areas. At the same time, in order not to alter the original stone walls, the block concentrates all the installations of the cohousing.

In terms of comfort, this large earth block provides a high hygroscopic property, which compensates the low capacity of existing stone walls to humidity regulation. In addition, it compensates part of the thermal inertia that is lost through the thermal insulation of the existing façades on its interior side.

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A politically committed and militant project!

Today, the unsealed plot and green roof of the pavillon host an incredible diversity of plant, animal and funghi species. A unfiltered, 12 metre long pond, that is over 2 meters deep, connects the wild northern and southern parts of the garden. The roof is covered by another garden, which is slightly less wild, and more focused on food production. In winter, the house itself orients around a large fireplace, which‘s chimneys comically long shape responds to the legal exhaust distances in the dense urban environment. In summer, it opens to the pond and gardens.

The creation of a complex habitat, that enables a species rich environment to thrive, is the main purpose of the design.

Text provided by the architects.

A politically committed and militant project!

Without artifice, the project chooses to highlight natural resources, bio-sourced and local. The timber comes from the nearby spruce forests, sawn and cut by the students of the technical school of wood, implemented by a committed and local company. Almost anecdotal but voluntarist, the project located in the Bugey massif summons the Hauteville stone once used to build Lyon, in a raw and expressive implementation to sit down and take off the building.

In the DRC, the base as emanation of the rocky soil, expresses this minerality through the dialogue of a clear concrete and the Hauteville stone. The program, placed on this base, is all wood, local spruce when it is protected, douglas fir when it is exposed to the vertical and chestnut on the horizontal.

Technically, a wood pellet boiler supplies the building and a wood dryer. A technical gallery, backed by land, contains the electrical pathways, fluids and networks of dual flow ventilation – a pragmatic device that saves the project of any plenum.

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The house is arranged on a single level, organized around relaxation and enjoyment. Social and contemplative spaces were prioritized, such as large rooms open to the landscape and areas with hammocks that invite moments of pause and connection with nature. The goal of Toronjos is clear: to enjoy and preserve the natural landscape.

The commitment to sustainability is evident in every aspect of the project. Local materials and regional labor were used, reducing the carbon footprint and strengthening the site’s identity. The structure combines adobe and wooden beams, which were left exposed to add warmth. The floor was handcrafted with adobe produced on-site, and the walls are finished with an adobe plaster that harmonizes with the surrounding color palette.

Toronjos is, essentially, architecture that doesn’t dominate. It blends seamlessly with the landscape, enhancing it and becoming a natural extension of it. The building doesn’t seek to stand out, but rather to disappear among the vegetation, water, and earth, embodying a way of living in harmony with the environment.

Text provided by the architects.