La Casa Nova

A late 1990s modernist slab houses the Médiathèque de Monthey on its first, second and third floors, connected by a triple-height space overlooking the street. When the ground floor – formerly occupied by the postal service – is vacated, the city of Monthey sees the opportunity to expand the Médiathèque and transform it into a hub for all of its cultural services. This implies completely reconfiguring the ground floor and creating a new vertical connection to the Médiathèque above.

The Casa Nova is named in reference to the Monthey sculptor, but also as a statement of intent for its role within the city – a house of culture where staff and public alike can feel at home. This apparent conflict with the architectural expression of the existing building finds its resolution in the model of the loft as a functionalist space reattributed to the domestic. The plan is drawn as an oversized apartment in which out-of-scale versions of the living room, the kitchen, the atelier, or the bedroom are made accessible to all.

This intention raises the question of home, what it feels like and how it is built. It is a privileged and intimate space where one feels at ease. More often than not, it is cluttered with objects gathered over time, some useful, some sentimental, some that we love and others that we want to get rid of but cannot.

The Casa Nova is filled with such objects, inherited from various public institutions in the city. Users recognize transposed elements and reused materials from the former post office, the old library’s reception desk, armchairs from the tourism office, tables from the train station, lamps, chairs, doors, often banal or even ugly, but integral to a newly built environment which instantly feels familiar and comfortable.

  • existing condition plan
  • ground floor plan
  • reflected ceiling plan
  • enlarged plan of stair
Programme
Médiathèque
Location
Monthey, VS
Year
2022 - 2024
Client
Commune de Monthey
Procedure
Direct mandate
Civil engineer
Kurmann & Cretton
Photography
Ariel Huber