Rehabilitation The wood of the castle

“We faced a strong challenge here of making the development a better place in which to live, improving comfort and combating fuel poverty,” explains Heritage Programmes Manager, Virginie Le Roy. “The idea was to remove the stigma associated with social housing, which is often disparaged whereas it can be of great quality, from an architectural, urban and human perspective.” Terracotta brick in a pearl grey colour was the natural choice for adding its strength and warmth to the project. Airaud Peinture did the façades in a regular layout, and the main works supervisor, Stéphane Moussa, says with a smile: “It was really nice to install, a bit like playing with Lego!” Here, the terracotta brick slips cover the whole of the ground floor and give a subtle boost to the building entrances, like a gentle invitation to come and curl up at home. The combination of these different terracotta levels breaks up the height of the building and unifies the ground floor surfaces. This use on the base of the façades also acts as a real protective casing for these areas that are subject to damage and defacement. “We opted for terracotta due to its attractive appearance, long-lasting properties and authenticity”, explains Virginie Le Roy. “We wanted qualitative modernity to enhance the buildings for the long term.”