Parisian architecture firm Samuel Delmas has created a vernacularly inspired building that aims to provide good architectural reason and healthcare service to keep people from escaping this predominantly rural part of France. Nozay is a town 26 km southwest from Paris, famous for its blue stone but endemic to a condition happening across Europe - the depopulation of the countryside.
Sitting on a gently sloping hill, the town's new healthcare centre has privileged views over Nozay and its traditional gabled roof homes. The architects reinterpreted these and designed a playful roofscape consisting of seven zinc pyramid-like wells that diffuse soft light into the offices and consultation rooms below, as well as providing natural ventilation.
The environmental approach continues in the building's outer skin: grey vertical zinc fins function as sun shading devices, while providing a natural yet modern aesthetic to the building. The facade is punctuated by large double height aluminium openings, or loggias, strategically positioned in order to frame views from interior spaces.
The dark envelope - referencing the local blue stone - contrasts with white interiors, inspiring a clean and healthy environment. Healthcare, administration and visitor spaces are arranged around two interior courtyards that serve as way-finding tools on both levels. These enhance the spaces with natural light and a closer relation with nature, an atmosphere favourable to healing and positive thinking.
The parking lot is located on the lower level of the building, partly sunken into the landscape and clad in blue stone - as if to ground the building further into the local vernacular. The architects carefully sculpted the surrounding terrain into a natural public space by introducing plants, trees, and stone-paved walking paths.
Delmas' project perfectly blends in to the town's skyline and firmly anchors itself to the landscape. Nozéens have a reason to gloat at their town's welcome latest architectural addition.
Grey vertical zinc fins function as sun shading devices for the centre
The architects reference the area's traditional gabled roof homes in creating a playful zinc roofscape for the building
The dark envelope's colouring was chosen to reference the area's local blue stone
Inside, the interiors are kept clean and simple in whites and light coloured hues
The layout is punctured by two interior courtyards that serve as way-finding tools on both levels
The architects aimed for natural light and views of the surrounding nature to penetrate the building
INFORMATION
For more information on Samuel Delmas visit their website
-
‘I want to bring anxiety to the surface': Shannon Cartier Lucy on her unsettling worksIn an exhibition at Soft Opening, London, Shannon Cartier Lucy revisits childhood memories
-
What one writer learnt in 2025 through exploring the ‘intimate, familiar’ wardrobes of ten friendsInspired by artist Sophie Calle, Colleen Kelsey’s ‘Wearing It Out’ sees the writer ask ten friends to tell the stories behind their most precious garments – from a wedding dress ordered on a whim to a pair of Prada Mary Janes
-
Year in review: 2025’s top ten cars chosen by transport editor Jonathan BellWhat were our chosen conveyances in 2025? These ten cars impressed, either through their look and feel, style, sophistication or all-round practicality
-
‘You have to be courageous and experimental’: inside Fondation Cartier’s new homeFondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris invites us into its new home, a movable feast expertly designed by Jean Nouvel
-
A wellness retreat in south-west France blends rural charm with contemporary concreteBindloss Dawes has completed the Amassa Retreat in Gascony, restoring and upgrading an ancient barn with sensitive modern updates to create a serene yoga studio
-
Explore the new Hermès workshop, a building designed for 'things that are not to be rushed'In France, a new Hermès workshop for leather goods in the hamlet of L'Isle-d'Espagnac was conceived for taking things slow, flying the flag for the brand's craft-based approach
-
‘Landscape architecture is the queen of science’: Emanuele Coccia in conversation with Bas SmetsItalian philosopher Emanuele Coccia meets Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets to discuss nature, cities and ‘biospheric thinking’
-
An apartment is for sale within Cité Radieuse, Le Corbusier’s iconic brutalist landmarkOnce a radical experiment in urban living, Cité Radieuse remains a beacon of brutalist architecture. Now, a coveted duplex within its walls has come on the market
-
Can design make you healthier? Inside the architecture of wellnessAs wellness-focused Gen Z enters the marketplace, buildings are no longer being viewed as merely containers for living and working – they're environments that influence physical and mental wellbeing. How can we create spaces that support health and humanity?
-
Maison Louis Carré, the only Alvar Aalto house in France, reopens after restorationDesigned by the modernist architect in the 1950s as the home of art dealer Louis Carré, the newly restored property is now open to visit again – take our tour
-
Meet Ferdinand Fillod, a forgotten pioneer of prefabricated architectureHis clever flat-pack structures were 'a little like Ikea before its time.'
