Wilmotte & Associés is a multidisciplinary architecture firm given the fact that it takes on an impressive range and scale of design projects from large plants, stadiums, service sector programs, high-rise buildings, hospitals, residential properties, wine stores, hotels, theatres, museums, congress centers, and shopping malls to private residences.
Jean-Michel Wilmotte‘s architecture is characterized by the great care given to a building’s integration within the site it occupies, to clean lines, quality of materials, and attention to detail. In addition to new constructions, Wilmotte excels in the restoration field and often carries out redevelopment projects in historic town centers. Keen to respect heritage as well as a certain modernity and sobriety in his architecture, Jean-Michel Wilmotte developed the concept of “contemporary grafting” to demonstrate that the meeting of old and modern is at the heart of the issue of urban regeneration.
HÔTEL LA RÉSERVE – RAMATUELLE FRANCE
After Geneva and Paris, La Réserve opened a spa hotel on the outskirts of Saint-Tropez. Sited at the center of a hill clad with holm oak and stone pine trees, in fusion with an extraordinary natural environment, La Réserve Ramatuelle is a new stylish and discreet refuge offering a five-star service to its guests. Wilmotte & Associés SA metamorphosed a 1970s building into a 21st-century luxury hotel.
Of the derelict building, the shell and plaster and brick facades have been preserved. This exceptional establishment with its pure lines is set into an estate 9,000 m², which already was home to 12 rental villas. In the midst of the villas, the roof of the main building, with its pagoda-like aspect, grabs attention. Respecting the footprint of the existing building, Wilmotte & Associés SA has achieved a seamless integration into the Mediterranean landscape.
With seven bedrooms and 16 suites, 50 to 100 m2 each with a private terrace or garden, the hotel boasts natural materials in a magnificent palette of ochre, white and sand tones, as though echoing its surroundings. A 1000 m² spa, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, Turkish bath, bar, and restaurant complete this hotel complex. In 2012, La Réserve was the 10th French luxury hotel to receive the “Palace” distinction.
PANGYO – KYUNGKIDO REPUBLIC OF KOREA
The design projectconsists of seven buildings, each of four floors, plus basement car park. It also has a fitness room and a guard post for access control.
The car park consists of a large driveway providing two sides of parking. It opens on either side of the parking area onto a bamboo garden on the same level. Car park lighting and ventilation are provided naturally by the bamboo gardens.
Once having left your car in the car park, you pass through a series of experiences each very different from the other. The first is a sunken bamboo garden. The second an ascent into the air by means of a fully-glazed lift. The view opens onto the landscape of the garden.
A real link between Paris and its suburbs, the design project emphasizes the site’s key features – the fort and its high elevation – creating a panoramic viewpoint. It is a privileged observatory that reveals the urban landscape in all its rich complexity, including the meandering course of the Seine and the different stands of trees stretching out as far as the eye can see.
The design projectexplores the fort’s pentagonal outline in two ways. The departure point is a wide, open, 100-metre, square plaza, similar to the Place des Vosges. With obvious centrality, this vast public place provides a reference point for this new urban scene, representing a rich social life for the inhabitants.
This open space is at the center of the process of urbanization, which is ordered by a Cartesian, orthogonal grid. The grid simultaneously provides discovery, homogeneity, fluidity, and spatial hierarchy. The buildings immediately adjacent to the plaza are arranged in a deliberately inward-looking style because of the poor quality of the frames built along the fringe of the fortifications and their curtain walls.
TOUR SIGNAL HIGH RISE – LA DÉFENSE FRANCE
Located in far Western Europe, Paris is at the edge of an industrial-urban core that runs from Rotterdam to Milan. Given its scale, La Défense is one of Europe’s leading business districts. Back in 2005, EPAD launched the “Renouveau du Quartier de la Défense” La Défense revitalisation program, with the goal of maintaining and consolidating its strategic position and international draw. The first towers will appear against the skyline in 2015, including the Tour Phare tower by Thom Mayne and the Tour Generali tower by Valode & Pistre. The installation of the Tour Signal will be part of this considerable undertaking, which is critical for maintaining La Défense’s level of excellence.
