House of Heritage and Culture, Bulle,
Switzerland, 2020

The project for the new Maison du patrimoine et de la culture proposes a reconfiguration of the existing volume into a composition that is uniform in its expression but articulated into pavilions to house a complex programme that includes museum facilities, a public library, temporary exhibition spaces and public access areas. The horizontal emphasis of the ensemble integrates the town’s medieval castle into a new skyline, embedding it into the surrounding landscape.

The dominance of timber as a structural material offers a durable solution and will characterise the interior spaces, giving them a strong, warm presence, the materiality of the roof and of the external surface echoes that of the original building, creating a subtle shift between the memory of the existing place and its reconfiguration.