The French territory is the guardian of an important industrial heritage that tells the story of an activity that is mining, once one of the main sources of energy in Europe. Today, this activity has greatly diminished and is tending to disappear completely. Montceau-les-Mines is part of a territory marked by this mining activity. Through this project, we wish to anchor the Chavannes coal washing plant in the existing heritage route. This unique industrial building has long been the largest coal washing base in Europe.

We propose a program that would be articulated around two key points that complement and nourish each other and that would allow to inhabit the washhouse at different temporalities. In order to respond to this program, we have chosen to set up a phasing that would allow, over time, to perceive the washhouse from a new angle. This phasing will therefore begin with the opening and treatment of the spaces to the south of the building in order to insert a socio-cultural center program.

Then we will begin the development of the access in order to reach the third phase: the opening of a commemorative place and the sensory route inside the washhouse. The strong link with nature and the relationship with water present in the different spaces of the washhouse allows this enhancement of the very structure of the building and participates in this general atmosphere that transports us outside the city walls, in a landscape cut off from the world.