The Vion fire station and barracks are located down the historical wall of the city and near the Garonne River. A symbol of the Toulouse modernity, this group of buildings is erected between 1953 and 1973. Our project initiates a dialogue with this built heritage – significant both at a local and national scale – that we wish to restore and highlight.
The implementation of new functions is dictated by the will to preserve the interior and exterior integrity of the existing buildings, while allowing them to be updated and integrated in the daily life of the inhabitants. The new constructions to be set on the site follow this same approach – they merge in their surroundings, without dominating them. The contemporary writing allows the distinction between the existing and the new buildings, hence enabling to identify the successive layers of construction.
If nowadays the site remains isolated from the urban fabric, our project seeks to reconnect the refurbished barracks with the rest of the city: on the one hand, by facilitating the connection to the circulation streets on each side of the perimeter, and on the other hand by diversifying and renewing the activities that occupy the ground level of the buildings. By transforming the formerly artificialized core of the parcel into a vegetized public space, we want to propose to the inhabitants, workers and passer-by a place for appropriation, where uses multiply.