Recasting a Historic Building as Living Material: The Renovation of the Paris Chamber of Notaries

SPACE July 2025 (No. 692) 

interview David Dottelonde, Wandrille Marchais co-principals, Atelier Senzu × Lee Sowoon​

Lee Sowoon (Lee): Originally designed in 1855 by architect Charles Rohault de Fleury, the building of the Paris Chamber of Notaries was recently renovated following an international competition. What motivated your design approach to this historic structure?

David Dottelonde (Dottelonde): What drew us in was the depth of the challenge: to give new life to a building steeped in history without turning it into a nostalgic replica. We saw this project as a chance to defend a position that’s central to our practice—that of architecture as a tool for long-term regeneration. Competing against major national and international firms, we entered the competition with the clarity that we had something different to offer: not a style, but a scenario. It was informed by a narrative rooted in the building’s material and symbolic reality, yet also anchored by the pressing environmental and social questions of our time.

Wandrille Marchais (Marchais): We approached this project as outsiders, but with the conviction that architecture can and must speak the language of transformation. We were not there to restore an image, but to recompose a structure capable of expressing relevance and endurance in 2025 and in 2095.

Lee: What was the overall design direction proposed by the Paris Chamber of Notaries, as the commissioner behind the design competition?

Marchais: The brief was structured yet remarkably open. The Chamber expressed four major ambitions: to create a ‘house of notaries’ open and welcoming to its members; to reconnect with the public; to embody the evolving identity of the profession; and to enhance a neglected heritage site. However, these goals were never reduced to prescriptive architectural gestures.

Dottelonde: While the client’s expectations were clear in terms of programmatic shifts – more flexibility, reversibility, and visibility – the design direction remained to be invented. We did not treat the brief as a list of requirements but as a potential...