Les Ateliers des Grands Cèdres

This project stems from a 25-year friendship between Maxime VAVASSEUR, the founder of Les Ateliers des Grands Cèdres, and David-Olivier DESCOMBES, the project’s architect.
This multi-purpose venue houses a restaurant, a pottery workshop, a training centre and a seminar space. It is located in the former winery of the estate of the same name, close to the Loire Gorges, which it overlooks, facing the Monts de la Madeleine.

The DODA.A agency implemented a complex programme that required the management of traffic flows within the space to coexist with respect for the centuries-old existing architecture. A sober approach was chosen, with interior fittings made from raw materials: plywood, galvanised steel, concrete and floor resin. The ingenuity of the contemporary assemblies interacts with the power of the stone walls and oak framework.

The spaces are generous, opening onto the south and the Grands Cèdres park.
They are revealed through the views that the project allows, in the staircases,
behind the glass roof, on the footbridge, from the openings created in the partition walls or behind the various wooden glass roofs.