Archeological Center

Situated in the Ramassiers concerted development zone in the commune of Colomiers, the Archeodunum Archaeological Research Center was designed as an “environment”: architecture and landscape are inseparable. Barely visible from the street, it functions as an interior world. Its two L-shaped volumes overlap to form a cloister, opening onto offices and workshops with entirely glazed facades. At the nucleus of the project, a rectangular pond, dotted with stone islands and Japanese steps, attracts small animals, and gives an impression of coolness in summer. In close collaboration with the landscape designer Cyrille Marlin, the landscape was conceived as a natural environment rather than a garden setting. Without any pre-established pattern, a mountain scree was created from stones quarried in the Pyrenees Mountains, based on existing earthen embankments. Fauna and flora have spontaneously found their place between the pond and the slope. A wall of ancient amphorae, a large cloister, a water lily pond, and the miniature Pyrenean Mountain range made from scree and wild plants: here, the project forms an “entity”.