March 31, 2016

Repurposed Oak Doors Clad Encore Heureux’s Pavillon Circulaire in Paris

There is nothing circular about the Pavillon Circulaire’s sawtooth form. Instead, the name refers to the ideal cyclical economy: the circle of one person’s waste becoming another’s resource. In honor of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Paris, the architectural collective Encore Heureux erected the 750- square-foot temporary structure on the vast square in front of the Renaissance revival Hôtel de Ville.

Photography courtesy of Cyrus Cornut.

Materials used to build the pavilion were 60 percent repurposed, and many found items were repaired and refinished in government workshops. “Demolition sites and junkyards became gold mines,” Nicola Delon says. Delon and fellow founding partner Julien Choppin composed the handsome facade from 180 oak doors recovered from the renovation of a public housing project. Mineral wool insulation was left over from a supermarket. Pine rafters came from a roofing company’s surplus. Obsolete streetlights became pendant fixtures. The terrace’s duckboard once served as boardwalk for Paris Plages, the summer “beaches” along the Seine. 

Photography courtesy of Cyrus Cornut.

Having served the initial purpose of hosting exhibitions, workshops, and lectures, with the audience sitting on 50 scavenged wooden chairs, the pavilion itself is to be reused. It will soon be the headquarters for a local boules club.

Photography courtesy of Encore Heureux.

Image courtesy of Encore Heureux.

> See more from the March 2016 issue of Interior Design

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