Architects: Le Dévéhat Vuarnesson Architectes
Area: 260 m²
Photographs: Charles Pétillon, Philippe Thibault, Erwan Bouroullec, Charlotte Vuarnesson
Excavation: Zieger Terrassements
Masonry: Lambert Cyril
Roofing: Philibert Charpente
Carpentry: Philibert Charpente
Electrical Work: SAS Bonhomme
Heating: Gelin Dury
Painting: Lebeau-Langlois
Landscape Architecture: L’Orangerie – Arie van Dorp
Landscape: Arie van Dorp – L’Orangerie
Natural Swimming Pool: L’Orangerie – Arie van Dorp, Arie van Dorp – L’Orangerie
Sanitation Garden: Combier Paysage
Client: Ève & Erwan Bouroullec and Thierry Lesage
Interior Joinery: Laurent Bonnet
Exterior Joinery: Laurent Bonnet
Plumbing: Gelin Dury
Partitions: Guillaume Liodenot Charpentier
Wood Floors: Guillaume Liodenot Charpentier
Floor Finishes: Manuel Alves Renov Sols
Country: France
La Grange Burgundy Farm Renovation and Conversion by Le Dévéhat Vuarnesson Architectes in Burgundy, France, transformed a former agricultural site into a dwelling embedded in the landscape. The design retained the courtyard layout, reused stone and timber from the existing farm, and integrated sustainable systems like rainwater harvesting, passive solar heating, and wood fiber insulation. A silage pit became a natural pool, and a stabling area was converted into a flexible hall. The project combines rural memory with environmental performance, creating spaces adaptable to gathering, retreat, and seasonal changes in light and weather.
Erwan Bouroullec commissioned Le Dévéhat Vuarnesson Architectes to rehabilitate a farm in Burgundy, France, preserving the agricultural memory of the site while adapting it for contemporary living. The architects approached the project with restraint, maintaining the character of the original buildings and their organization around a central courtyard. A collapsing structure was removed to open views toward the south, while the natural slope of the land was preserved to minimize intervention. Marion Vignal described the result as “a new generation of peasant architecture of pure, radical beauty, as humble in its language as it is efficient in its environmental qualities,” highlighting its connection to the surrounding valleys and forests.
The intervention transformed existing farm elements rather than replacing them. The silage pit was repurposed as a natural swimming pool, and parts of the asbestos roof of the stabling were removed to create a large multi-purpose space. Rainwater is now collected in an underground tank and used for irrigation and pool replenishment, complemented by a galvanized steel trough acting as a façade basin with aquatic plants and fish. New Douglas fir elements were introduced alongside existing stonework, softening interiors and filtering light through polycarbonate panels in covered, unheated workshops that remain cool in summer and sheltered in winter.
Sustainability guided the rehabilitation with passive and low-energy strategies. Wood fiber insulation was applied externally on the roof, paired with double-glazed wood joinery, underfloor heating, and wood-burning stoves for thermal efficiency. Large fixed windows frame expansive views and provide solar gains, moderated by blinds during warmer months. Material reuse was central: oak from dismantled trusses formed new lintels, stones from the land created stair treads, and terracotta tiles were recovered for window sills. Collaborative floors strengthened the structure, and lightweight wood partitions complemented retained stone walls to allow flexible interior arrangements.
The project created adaptable living and working spaces that respond to the rhythms of the seasons. It integrates landscape and architecture, allowing vegetation to climb façades and natural elements to shape daily experience. Future work envisions rehabilitating a small dovecote on the property, maintaining continuity with the farm’s historic fabric while extending the principles of adaptive reuse and environmental responsiveness established in the primary renovation.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Burgundy, France
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
