{"id":7501,"date":"2023-01-23T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T08:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/?post_type=portfolio&p=7501"},"modified":"2025-09-26T12:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:33:07","slug":"palais-des-congres-de-royan","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/portfolio\/palais-des-congres-de-royan\/","title":{"rendered":"ROYAN CONGRESS CENTER"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ROYAN CONGRESS CENTER<\/h2>\n

RESTORATION AND MODERNISATION OF A TESTIMONY TO THE ARCHITECTURAL RENEWAL OF THE 1950s<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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A well-known seaside resort, the town of Royan experienced tremendous growth under the Second Empire. Destroyed by bombs during the Second World War, traces of the pre-war city remained scarce. In 1949, the government of the time designated the town as a priority for reconstruction, thus prompting its redesign. The project was entrusted to the Bordeaux architect Claude Ferret, who would turn the town into an example of the architectural and urban culture of the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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The first Congress Center in France recovers its programmatic and technical innovation of the 1950s.<\/h2>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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The new town was built according to the principles of the Modern Movement, which promoted aesthetics based on functionalism and rationalism, with an innovative approach according to which the form of buildings should derive exclusively from their purpose. The program included the creation of the first congress center in France. After four years of construction work, the building was inaugurated in 1957, with a fa\u00e7ade made out of Jean Prouv\u00e9\u2019s porthole panels. In 2004, the congress center was awarded the \u201cHeritage 20th century\u201d label and was listed as a historical monument in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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In 2007, the town of Royan decided to rehabilitate the congress center, which had undergone too many alterations since it was built, in particular due to refurbishments in the 1970s. As part of an overall approach to restoring the city of Royan\u2019s heritage, the aim is to recover the congress center\u2019s programmatic focus and original architectural complexity, while enhancing its comfort and ensuring that it meets today\u2019s standards. An Interpretation Center for Architecture and Heritage (CIAP) will also be opened to inform and raise awareness among the general public about the area\u2019s architecture and heritage.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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The restoration and modernisation project we are carrying out alongside Pierre Ferret, son of Claude Ferret, will result in the revival of the architectural structure of the 1950s. The congress center will be redesigned to recover its initial layout, and will include a theater and conference hall, a bar, a restaurant, and exhibition spaces. The complete renovation of the Saintonge Hall aims to restore its original elliptical shape and to improve its comfort and security standards. To this end, several structures have been destroyed, such as mezzanines, interpreter booths and some later partitions. On the exterior, the glass fa\u00e7ade dating back to 1987 has been removed to restore the \u201ccurtain wall\u201d made out of Jean Prouv\u00e9 panels with Vermeer gray and yellow.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the Palais des Congr\u00e8s de Royan received Historic Monument status, a testament to the enduring architectural legacy of the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Location<\/strong>
\nRoyan<\/h6>\n
Project type<\/strong>
\nRenovation
\nand modernisation<\/h6>\n
Program<\/strong>
\nTheaters and Convention Centers<\/h6>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Project owner<\/strong>
\nCity of Royan<\/h6>\n
Team<\/strong>
\nChatillon Architects (associate architect),
\nAtelier Ferret (lead architect)<\/h6>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Budget<\/strong>
\n6.5 M\u20ac HT<\/h6>\n
Timeline<\/strong>
\n2017-2023<\/h6>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALAIS DES CONGRES DE ROYAN RESTITUTION ET MODERNISATION D\u2019UN T\u00c9MOIGNAGE DU RENOUVEAU ARCHITECTURAL DES ANN\u00c9ES 1950 Station baln\u00e9aire r\u00e9put\u00e9e, la ville de Royan conna\u00eet un formidable essor sous le Second Empire. An\u00e9antie sous les bombes au cours de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, les traces de la p\u00e9riode de l\u2019avant-guerre restent rares. D\u00e8s 1949, le gouvernement…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"portfolio_category":[103],"portfolio_tag":[],"class_list":["post-7501","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_category-spectacle-et-congres"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/7501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7501"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/7501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9930,"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/7501\/revisions\/9930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"portfolio_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_category?post=7501"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chatillonarchitectes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_tag?post=7501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}