The project involves the creation of 5,500 m² of shells harbouring shops, concept stores and leisure activities in the vast space of the Capucins Workshops (Ateliers des Capucins) in Brest. The Capucins Workshops are buildings classified as historical monuments part of the Brest Arsenal, built in the nineteenth century. A landmark overseen by the city since 2009, the workshops have been converted into a cultural and retail precinct in the heart of the Capucins district, accessible by France’s urban cable car. The site, extraordinary in its history and size, unique in its programming and new uses, is a cornerstone of Brest’s industrial and military heritage. The project seeks to enhance and support this atypical space while infusing tailor-made and respectful contemporary architecture. The entire project is located on two levels along the indoor covered street connecting the cable car to the main square of the new district. While the building mainly composed of large metal structures and large pitched glass roof, a series of cells are made out of wood, making them strikingly stand out. The use of wood brings warmth and lightness, and gives the impression of an almost ephemeral takeover. Each volume is composed like a vertebrate ossature, punctuated with vertical lines, animated by a random arrangement of wood, opaque anthracites, or glass surfaces that create visual breakthrough, offering a real sense of the sheer scale of the site. The facades play with this frame, emphasised by large wooden thorns. If the modularity of the cells can accommodate the diversity of activities in an overall coherence, the singularity of the project comes from the gigantism of the place, the constructive choice and the strong environmental commitment of the project. The facades, despite their height sometimes reaching 13 metres, are made of prefabricated wood frame walls with thorns made of Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL). The flooring, made of prefabricated LVL boxes span 10 to 14 metres. The floors, disassociated from existing workshops, are supported by a pole and beam system with a laminated wood structure. All the materials used were chosen for their environmental properties. The project demonstrates creativity, innovation, respect for the environment, functionality and inclusivity, as explained in the following writings. It fits strongly but respectfully in an exceptional site, in preserving and furthering the industrial heritage character by the recreation of multiple scales, a change in spatial perception, and by coming to terms with thrusting upwards, lively façades made of wood. Through aesthetic and construction choices, the project partakes of the atmosphere of the place. It also takes part in the renewing of the town and its major industrial heritage by its design and organization. This transformation of an existing site falls within a contemporary issue, a responsible and sustainable approach, respectful of the site, of the people and the planet. This big building made of wood brings about warmness and lightness, somehow as if the place were ephemeral. The material, the wood, is glorified. It does not insult the edifice, to the contrary it delicately fits in the ‘Ateliers des Capucins’, in revealing the beauty of the premises through past and future. The material serves the project but also underlines its aesthetics and building abilities. The thorns of the wood draw a pattern animated by openings and random fillings which reveal glimpses of spaces, windows on varied activities playing like framings offering breakthroughs and perspectives in the original façades. The project highlights the hugeness of the place while succeeding in maintaining warmness, keeping the scale of the walker, the stroller or the worker. The modularity brought by our intervention serves the diversity of the activities with cohesiveness. It creates a peculiar atmosphere, welcoming and generous as well for the public as for a variety of uses, and for spaces dedicated to work, creation, cultural activity and catering. The project takes part in the serendipity of this urban space, under cover and closed, open to everyone at any time, playing a part in the evolution of urban, social and cultural practices. The space is unclassifiable, a covered public space with a freedom of uses beyond set activities (dance, games, encounters, walks, street shows…). The construction uses only wood despite technical and structural difficulties, among those the necessity to fireproof it. Material have been chosen for environmental and sanitary qualities. Walls and floors are PEFC structure and wood facings from biological origin. Prefabrication in workshop allowed the optimization of recycling and sorting out of refuse. Facings and insulating materials respect the environmental rules. The elevations made of prefabricated frames made of wood are more than 13 meters high, they support caisson-floors, also prefabricated, which scope is 14 meters. To protect this ancient monument, the assemblage is totally dissociated from the structure of the existing workshops. To conclude, the Ateliers des Capucins as a whole project have come to symbolize the town of Brest, its XIX century military heritage, along with its cultural vitality.