Cour Du Dôme / Taillandier Architectes Associés

Architects: Taillandier Architectes Associés (TAA Toulouse)
Area: 21,167 m²
Year: 2023
Photography: Philippe Rol, Roland Halbe
Lead Architects: Pierre-Louis Taillandier
Architects Team: Marinell Van Wyk, Silvia Mulas, Tina Anzinger, Madalina Spiridon, Mathieu Dubernard, Norma Tedo
Urbanist: D’une Ville à L’autre
Materials: Brick, stone, prefabricated concrete, aluminum
Client: Kaufman & Broad
City: Toulouse
Country: France

Cour du Dôme is a mixed-use development located in the Saint-Cyprien district of Toulouse, conceived on a formerly enclosed institutional block adjacent to some of the city’s most significant heritage landmarks. Designed by Taillandier Architectes Associés, the project combines housing, a four-star hotel residence, and commercial spaces within a carefully articulated urban ensemble. The architecture establishes continuity with the neighboring La Grave hospital through massing, proportion, and material choices rooted in the city’s brick tradition. A large planted courtyard and newly introduced pedestrian routes restore permeability to the site while reinforcing landscape connections along the left bank of the Garonne. Through a measured contemporary language, the project contributes to the ongoing transformation of a historically sensitive urban area.

Cour du dôme / taillandier architectes associés

The Cour du Dôme project emerges from a context shaped as much by absence as by heritage, occupying a block that had long remained inaccessible following the relocation of the Claudius Régaud Institute. Its transformation addresses not only a physical void within the Saint-Cyprien district but also a broader urban disconnection between the neighborhood, the river, and a constellation of cultural institutions on Toulouse’s left bank.

Rather than imposing a singular architectural gesture, the project adopts a strategy of urban repair, reintroducing pedestrian continuity and visual permeability across the site. New pathways and alignments reconnect Place Saint-Cyprien to the Garonne while reinstating long-lost relationships between public space and the historic La Grave complex, whose dome remains a defining presence in the city’s skyline.

The architectural language is grounded in material continuity, with brick serving as both a contextual reference and a contemporary construction medium. Subtle variations in tone and texture lend depth to the façades, while molded details and recessed loggias articulate the massing and temper its scale. These elements work together to create elevations that respond sensitively to light and shadow without resorting to historic imitation.

The project’s volumetric organization draws inspiration from the hospital buildings nearby, translating their solidity into a regular structural grid punctuated by generous openings. Deep loggias provide private outdoor spaces for residents and animate the façades, establishing a rhythm that balances robustness with permeability and reinforces the sense of inhabitation across the ensemble.

At the center of the block, a large landscaped courtyard functions as both a spatial and environmental anchor. Planted with local species and shaped by stepped building profiles, it introduces daylight, ventilation, and cross-views while echoing the historic courtyard typologies of La Grave. Carefully framed sightlines maintain constant visual dialogue with the dome, integrating the monument into daily life within the development.

Through its calibrated response to heritage, landscape, and contemporary programmatic demands, Cour du Dôme positions itself as a discreet yet consequential addition to Toulouse’s urban fabric. Its architectural restraint and urban clarity underscore a broader ambition to reconcile density with openness, ensuring that new construction contributes meaningfully to the city’s historical and spatial continuity.