AHA – François Misonne, Louis XIV

Tournai

Carla Frick-Cloupet

Adaptive Reuse Affordable Housing Heritage Social Housing Hainaut

In Tournai, the “Louis XIV” project is transforming a listed building into social housing: a social orientation that contrasts rather sharply with the name of the French monarch. From this surprising paradox, the project by AHA – François Misonne takes the best to give the social programme the air of a palace.

The “Louis XIV” project, as its name suggests, has something both charismatic and outdated about it. Built in 1686, when the city of Tournai belonged to the Kingdom of France, the building originally housed civil hospices.