The farm of Suze is a former post house connecting Boulogne-sur-Mer to Paris. It is today transformed into a stud farm of breeding and care in order to preserve the race of draught horses from the Boulonnais area. The architecture is simple, rustic, using the traditional volumes, materials and constructive systems in a contemporary vocabulary.

▼项目概览，overall view © SCHNEPP-RENOU

▼场地位置，situation © Joly&Loiret Architecture Agency

The development of our project is part of a process aiming to celebrate, preserve and enhance the site, which we thought remarkable. Remarkable because it embodies the specifics of a particular business and of the relationship between man and horse within the special environment of the Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Natural Park. Our aim was to «contribute to reviving this rich heritage, thereby enhancing it,» in a context where rural architecture and the traditional Boulonnais breed of draught horse are under threat. We therefore wanted to make the most of the identity of the site as much in terms of its unusual and exceptional rural architecture and land- scape, as in terms of the functions specific to the equine business to be developed. 

Thus three lines of reflection were organised, as follow: 1.With regards the architecture: project developed around the specific typology of the Ferme de la Suze (four-sided farmyard with the open corners, giving views over the landscape); 2.With regards the landscape: development and reinforcement of the pastoral structure; 3.With regards functions: using the particularity and functional implications linked to the development of the Boulonnais draught horse (relationship between man and horse).