Les Sources de Fontbelle by Coco Architecture
This restaurant offers a mysterious and dark architecture that disappears in front of the forest setting.
Construction of a 72-seat restaurant. The 450m² building includes a room dedicated to gourmet catering "La Source" with 32 seats, a bistro room "La Forêt" with 40 seats, a lounge area for welcoming and waiting for customers and two kitchens.
The restaurant is located on an exceptional site, which overlooks the Fontbelle valley, offering a panoramic view of the virgin forest and the surrounding hills. Nestled between a housing estate and this wild valley, however, restaurant customers benefit from the immediate proximity to the Rocade d'Angoulême.
The building overlooks the cliff and makes fans of the karst and rocky landscape dizzy.
The building finds its identity in the use of raw materials. These materials which in most buildings are made invisible are highlighted here. It is a careful and thoughtful implementation which allowed the materials to assert the atmosphere and the identity of the place. Metal framework, cladding trays, zinc, raw concrete walls and floors… these materials show themselves, interact with each other in a play of materials, textures, colors and lights. The layout of the zinc facade marks the architectural lines to reinforce the cantilever effect of this building located overhanging a sloping ground.
The genius loci, the spirit of the site, was a great inspiration to the architects. Material elements such as vegetation, water and rock are found in the architectural style of the building. The workspaces (kitchen, storage, storage, cellar) form a buffer to the north, on the housing estate side, while the two dining rooms open out onto the landscape. From the two bistro and gastro rooms, large openings direct the views towards the park and the Fontbelle valley. The interior layout, sober and uncluttered, projects outwards. The terraces suspended in the air offer visitors a total immersion in nature.
The gastronomic experience offered by chef Guillaume Veyssière, who has just received a Michelin star, goes hand in hand with the experience of the place. Nature, architecture and gastronomy seem to have come together in a dialogue that multiplies emotion and awakens the senses. Sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing are called upon in the same movement to anchor the physical sensations in the heart of this space.
Project: Les Sources de Fontbelle
Location: Angoulême, France
Design House: Coco Architecture
Photography: Pauline Turmel
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