FONTEVRAUD L’HOTEL RENOVATED & DECORATED BY AGENCE JOUIN MANKU
FONTEVRAUD L’HOTEL
RENOVATED & DECORATED BY AGENCE JOUIN MANKU
Agence Jouin Manku
has upgraded the interior of a hotel and restaurant in the French monastic city of
Fontevraud using a palette of wood, metal and fabric to complement the original
stone building – a former priory.
Designers Patrick
Jouin and Sanjit Manku of Agence Jouin Manku were
tasked with refurbishing the protected interior of the Saint-Lazare priory as
part of a redevelopment of Fontevraud Abbey and the four surrounding priories
that make up a monastery complex dating from the Middle Ages.
The designers –
whose past projects include the lounge in Munich's Bayerischer Hof hotel –
were required to integrate 21st-century aesthetics and technologies without
altering the original structure of the building, which had also been used as a
hospital and a hospice for nuns before becoming a hotel and restaurant in the
1980s.
"What we wanted
for Fontevraud was not the classic hotel and restaurant experience, but
something unique; a journey between tradition and modernity that reinterprets
the story of Saint-Lazare for the future, marrying emotion, sensual pleasure
and poetry," said the designers.
Custom-designed
freestanding furniture has been introduced to divide spaces and alter the
functionality of the chapel, chapter house and refectory surrounding a
cloistered garden, and a separate wing overlooking a physic garden.
The bedrooms are
spread across various wings of the priory and are designed with a neutral
palette to create tranquil resting places that reference the monastic
history of the buildings. All of the furniture in the bedrooms is
custom-designed, with some of the items concealed to reduce visual clutter.
Special attention is
paid to acoustics in the rooms, with 22-centimetre-thick partition walls, wood
cladding and fabric wall panels all included to help provide soundproofing.
Padded linen
headboards suspended above the beds are intended to reference the hooded habits
worn by Fontevraud's monks, while a steel rail fixed to the wall supports a
cone-shaped metal lamp, television and coat hooks.
Beneath the Gothic
arches of the priory's former chapel, the designers installed a publicly
accessible bar with an "alter-like" monolithic seating and media unit
extending along its centre.
The solid oak
structure incorporates booths and table surfaces where guests can have a drink
or interact with touch-screen table tops and tablets integrated into the
furniture, which present content and games relating to the priory's history.
Six unique bespoke
padded screens with built-in benches help to define the edges of the bar area
while providing a dark and soft contrast to the stone walls and solid wood
furniture.
The cloistered area
at the centre of the abbey has been transformed into an 88-seat restaurant with
tables that look out through new freestanding glazed walls towards the herb
garden.
The restaurant
extends into an adjacent chapter house, where banquettes with high padded backs
were designed to sit on top of the existing stone surfaces.
Large hanging lights
made from walnut and copper are suspended above tables in the chapter house.
Their kinked forms aid the acoustics in the stone-walled space.
A former refectory
has been transformed into a banqueting hall with an eight-metre-long dining
table at its centre. The table is lined with folding seats that can be stored
in units influenced by the stalls found in churches.
A line of candles
placed along the length of the table is intended to recreate the monastic
ambience of the original refectory, while four textile triptychs hung along one
wall help to reduce echoes.
At one end of the
space, bench seating provides a relaxation and reading area in front of a large
fireplace.
The renovation
process took more than two years and involved rebuilding buttresses and a tower
on two sides of the building, rearranging the spaces to accommodate bedrooms
and removing flagstone floors to install underfloor heating, all without
damaging the original fabric of the priory.
You may watch Fontevraud L’Hotel’s video from Vimeo web page to
click below link.
Dish by Chef Thibaut Ruggeri
JOUIN MANKU
Tandem, singular,
multicultural, ambitious, neither architects nor designers : Patrick Jouin and
Sanjit Manku invent a trade at the crossroads of industrial production and the
long tradition of craftsmanship.
By combining their experience and concordant conceptual/experimental approaches, they recognized the opportunity for a dynamic collaboration that would break down the boundaries between object, interior and structure.
One of the fundamental values of the agency is reinventing itself with each project by working on a unique conception. There are fundamental ideas and design philosophies that inform every project from ceiling height to door handle
A team of 20 individuals, designers, interior designers and architects work together to push back the creation.
By combining their experience and concordant conceptual/experimental approaches, they recognized the opportunity for a dynamic collaboration that would break down the boundaries between object, interior and structure.
One of the fundamental values of the agency is reinventing itself with each project by working on a unique conception. There are fundamental ideas and design philosophies that inform every project from ceiling height to door handle
A team of 20 individuals, designers, interior designers and architects work together to push back the creation.
http://www.patrickjouin.com/en/agencies/jouin-manku/
