Two hundred-year old semi-detached houses, originally symmetrical and built simultaneously, met very different fates. We were asked to restore one of them, which was in ruins after being abandoned decades earlier. The aim was to transform the old house into a services building. The original partitioning was not always appropriate to the new requirements, but the ruins pointed to a possible solution: a dormer window had collapsed, bringing down part of the roof and several walls, breaking part of the floor immediately beneath it and crashing onto the ground floor. The project started by creating a triple-height central hall organising the spatial arrangement of the various floors, and illuminated by a plain skylight, as suggested by the ruins.

While the debris was being removed, we found a granite wall on the ground floor, which was left intact, almost like a sculptural element.

As many original features were preserved as possible: doors with greenish glass, shutters on windows and doors, panelling, skirting boards, balusters and handrails on staircases, decorative rosacea on the ceilings (restored like a jigsaw puzzle). Premium materials were used, from oak wood to stone with an unusual greenish shade.

The intervention included an outbuilding at the back of the plot: taking advantage of the corner of an old granite wall, a small concrete building was erected.