The Waulx farm - Renovation of a farm complex

Situated on a plateau bounded by the Meuse and Lesse valleys, the Waulx farm is a centuries-old courtyard farm, a precious historical witness to the rural architecture of the Condroz. Faced with the evolution of current agricultural practices, the original courtyard farms have become inadequate and are often doomed to abandonment and then demolition, thus ruining part of the Walloon rural heritage.

The detailed study of the various farm buildings (dwellings, barns, stables, bakehouses, sheds, courtyard) has made it possible to grasp all their characteristics in order to understand the logic of their location, the construction techniques and the lifestyles of our ancestors, and to imagine their contemporary evolution in a relevant way while respecting their history. The site has been given a new dynamic by the development of 2 gîtes, 5 dwellings, a wine storehouse, a bakery, a professional kitchen, a farm shop, training areas and a multi-purpose room. The volume of the barn, gutted by a fire, will be unified under a new glass roof. The new greenhouse building, an unheated space that will evolve with the seasons, will house the training and experimental areas related to agricultural practices.

The interventions are controlled in order to meet multiple environmental ambitions: to preserve the qualities of the existing building with the systematic reuse of materials, to favour bio-sourcing for the addition of new materials (inside insulation with hemp-lime concrete), to minimise the involvement of onboard technology and to prefer to heat/ventilate with autonomous and low-energy systems (mass stoves, natural ventilation).

The renovation of the Waulx farm is part of a wider reflection with the reallocation of the 43 ha surrounding the farm into an agro-ecological area favourable to biodiversity. The farm of the future will be located in the middle of trees and various crops, an orchard, market gardening areas, an edible forest, vineyards, a lagoon and an ecological pond.