Atelier MA design welcome centre in the heart of the Mormal Forest, France

Halle Forestière

Architect: Atelier MA
Location: Locquignol, France
Type: Pavilion
Year: 2022
Photographs: Nicolas Da Silva Lucas

A Doorway to the Mormal forest

The following description is courtesy of the architects. The market sits on the edge of the Pâture d'Haisne pond, in the heart of the Mormal forest. Located at the entrance to the village of Locquignol, in the Avesnois, this center for welcoming tourists and visitors bases its intention on the culture and history of the medieval forest.

Established in the alignment of the path crossing the pasture, the market rises, twists and embraces the landscape in a single gesture, coming to signal a pasture otherwise invisible by the forest and hilly landscape that it nevertheless wants to reveal.

A Shelter

The intervention provides for the creation of a covered hall whose main function will be to provide shelter for all users of the pasture.

The structural rhythm accompanies the visitor from the car park and opens onto the distant landscape of the pond and the forest, through a deformation of the triangular porticoes.

The Tiel of Shestnut

The hall is made up of rather audacious works.

Thus, the posts exposed to bad weather are made of solid larch, rough sawn. Blond and pink essence when sawn, adapted to this use, this wood gradually grays and takes on a gray and pink patina. Installed on screw piles, they are detached from the slab by strapping.

The primary spruce frame, protected from wetting by adapted banks, soars and adapts to the triangulations. Support for a Landes pine boarding, the cover reveals a split chestnut tavaillon, placed at the third with a brass nail. This exceptional material, expressive and durable, acquires a patina and is exposed on a roof overhang.