A fully demountable and reversible timber frame has been inserted into the 19th-century Palais Rameau in Lille, creating a flexible new interior that accommodates classrooms, workshops, laboratories, and public exhibition space, all while preserving the building’s historic steel shell.
The post-and-beam timber structure, shortlisted by the 2025 Dezeen Awards, slots inside the greenhouse-hall and is infilled with reconfigurable partitions that can be rearranged as teaching and research needs change. Two storeys of new rooms look over the central gallery through full‑height windows, and movable furniture maintains the hall’s function as a publicly accessible exhibition and meeting space.
“This approach not only respects the history and soul of the place, but also meets tomorrow’s requirements in terms of sustainability, efficiency, and flexibility of spaces,” according to the team at Atelier 9.81 and Perrot & Richard, who designed the installation. “An innovative and demonstrative architecture is proposed, through a modular and scalable project, designed to consider the future.”
The intervention leaves the original green-painted steelwork exposed and intentionally retains visible conduits and ventilation ducts, creating a layered interior that reads both the historic fabric and the contemporary insert. Materials were sourced locally, with poplar used for the primary structure and most components procured within a 100-kilometre radius, reflecting a bio-sourced, cradle-to-cradle approach. “Wood was an obvious choice, for reasons of respect for the building’s heritage, reversibility and sobriety, as well as for its aesthetic and structural qualities,” the architects said.
Originally built in 1878 by Auguste Mourcou and Henri Contamine as a horticultural exhibition hall, Palais Rameau’s classical and neo-Byzantine details frame the new timber infrastructure, which is designed to be entirely removable, ensuring the historic envelope is not compromised. The renovation adapts the building for JUNIA, the School of Science and Engineering of Lille Catholic University, and positions the hall as an active site for research into new forms of agriculture and food production, continuing its horticultural legacy.
