![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/8889/e58e/cee2/ef00/003b/medium_jpg/gbau_pth_08_%E2%88%8F_gbau_philippe_guyard.jpg?1468827777)
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Architects: Gbau
- Area: 710 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Emmanuelle Blanc, Béatrice Cafieri
![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Windows, Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/8907/e58e/cee2/ef00/0040/newsletter/gbau_pth_09_%E2%88%8F_emmanuelle_blanc.jpg?1468827901)
Text description provided by the architects. The town of thorens-glières wished to renovate the presbytery building dating back to the middle of the 19th century with a view to housing a medical center and small lodging for the parish priest. It also wanted to have a reception hall for the pilgrims who regularly come to venerate the theologist Saint François de sales, born in the château of the same name, very near the town and made a bishop in 1602 in the adjoining church, unfortunately rebuilt at the end of the 19th century.
![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Garden](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/88a3/e58e/cee2/ef00/003c/newsletter/gbau_pth_13_garden_%E2%88%8F_gbau_thomas_mouillon.jpg?1468827806)
![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Facade, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/8865/e58e/cee2/ef00/0039/newsletter/gbau_pth_05_model_%E2%88%8F_gbau.jpg?1468827742)
The first goal of the project was to restore the house and garden pair constituting a rural subsistence economy, typical of grouped housing village planning. The old jardin de curé (small enclosed garden) redesigned to match its former size was enclosed by a thick outer wall creating a sanctuary. The garden section was positioned at the foot of the old building as the folded down apron of its façade.
![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Image 5 of 30](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/88cc/e58e/cee2/ef00/003e/newsletter/gbau_pth_16_municipal_hall_%E2%88%8F_gbau_thomas_mouillon.jpg?1468827845)
![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/8a16/e58e/ce93/5100/004c/newsletter/gbau_extension_and_rehabilitation_of_a_presbytery_plan_1_500.jpg?1468828179)
![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Image 15 of 30](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/8929/e58e/ce93/5100/0048/newsletter/gbau_pth_18_interieur_%E2%88%8F_emmanuelle_blanc.jpg?1468827933)
This composition develops the interiority and withdrawal associated with a sunken enclosed garden, protected from the bustle of the street. It seeks to diminish the volume of the pilgrim's hall, a structure completely overlooking the garden and part of the wall, creating a sort of cavity at its triangular point. The second goal was to make the shape invisible from the road.
![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Image 12 of 30](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/88f8/e58e/ce93/5100/0047/newsletter/gbau_pth_12_%E2%88%8F_emmanuelle_blanc.jpg?1468827885)
The intervention in the old presbytery cultivates an affection for ‘‘the natural state of things’’ well-ordered rooms and a plan linking them, materials and surfaces altered or painted, inclusion of new features in the palimpsest of the past.
![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/8875/e58e/cee2/ef00/003a/newsletter/gbau_pth_06_%E2%88%8F_gbau_philippe_guyard.jpg?1468827755)
![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/8a03/e58e/cee2/ef00/0048/newsletter/S2.jpg?1468828158)
The third goal was to reject the picturesque, or, conversely, vivid and ostentatious contemporary surroundings, obtaining a middle ground in the mixture of techniques and non-invasive materials: engineering materials, no-fines concrete aggregating a lean concrete and a river washed aggregate, renderings and lime wash, preservation of wood flooring by hea upturned beam reinforcement in the joist work and implemented in thickness of the old structure.
![Rehabilitation and Extension of the Thorens-Glières Presbytery / Gbau - Forest](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/578c/8995/e58e/ce93/5100/004a/medium_jpg/gbau_pth_00_context_%E2%88%8F_maire_de_thorens_glieres.jpg?1468828051)