• The brief: This project is located in Limoges, a French city renowned worldwide for its porcelain heritage, on a vacant plot of land that our client wished to exploit in a useful and profitable way, while giving it a cultural dimension serving the local community. The mission: to transform this unexploited plot into a hybrid space, capable of hosting a shipping container self-storage rental activity while becoming a true meeting place and a venue for artistic expression for local residents.

• The design parti pris was to entirely rethink the aesthetics of a use traditionally given little visual value: container storage. Rather than aligning the storage units in a purely functional manner, we reversed their orientation: all access doors are placed away from the street, leaving large flat surfaces facing it, so many supports offered to artistic creation. Each container thus becomes the potential canvas for an artwork, transforming the passage in front of the site into a true visual journey.

• The cultural anchoring takes on its full meaning in Limoges, a city historically linked to graphic arts and satirical drawing. The project was conceived to host both established artists and schools, alongside educational projects with children, making the site an expression venue open to all. A living cultural dimension that evolves with the artworks on display.

• The back of the plot was deliberately preserved in its wooded character to create a shaded picnic area. Wooden tables, landscaped pathways and existing trees compose a true oasis of freshness and conviviality, extending the public dimension of the place.

• Nocturnal lighting was the subject of particular care, both for safety of use and for landscape integration. The light fixtures along the main pathways take up the structural form of a tree, in green tones echoing the hue chosen for the containers. This chromatic choice allows the storage units to blend into the environment rather than visually impose themselves, and completes the transformation of the storage space into a place of walking and discovery. The site becomes a true open-air gallery.

This project illustrates a dimension of our craft we particularly enjoy defending: space design is not limited to interiors or private gardens, it can also transform a functional site into a shared living space. By combining commercial profitability, landscape integration and cultural programming, La Jouvinerie demonstrates that an outdoor design project can serve both private use and collective interest, an approach particularly precious for urban and commercial projects with a public dimension.