A new real estate project initiated by Xavier Niel
You have to head towards the north-eastern tip of the island of Oléron, in the heart of the Saumonards national forest, to discover Forty2. Surrounded by nature and two hundred meters from the beach, the former eponymous fort is now the property of Xavier Niel and his school École42 dedicated to IT training.
© 11H45 et © Roaming Project
An annex for Xavier Niel’s school
Built in 1810 at the initiative of Napoleon to support Fort Boyard in the French naval defense strategy, Fort des Saumonards was decommissioned at the beginning of the 20th century. Abandoned, it successively became a squat, a penal colony then a holiday camp. It was bought in 2018 by businessman Xavier Niel who made it a summer annex of 42, the Forty2. The project, led by AR Studio d’Architectures, begins in May 2021 and is completed two years later – all with particular attention paid to heritage restoration. The architects repaired and cleaned the original stones on the facade, lime-hemp coating adorns the entire building and provides thermal insulation. In the center of the fort, a pavilion from the 1970s arouses the curiosity of architect Adrien Raoul, founder of AR Studio d’Architectures. He decides to “treat this building like the Louvre pyramid” and to enhance this UFO pavilion using frosted metal cladding in order to make the entire site shine on the facades.
A heritage renovation for community living
The space is designed for the school’s students, a “common place par excellence” where they can meet. Because the old fort is the summer HQ for community 42, who can go there for a student event, “learning vacation” punctuated by courses, a computer code discovery course… Within the Forty2 grounds, cabin beds similar to those on the Paris campus sit alongside a terrace where you can have lunch, a playing field beach-volleya resting net suspended above the dunes and a vegetable garden. In addition to this project, Xavier Niel is working to create a cultural foundation within the walls of the Hôtel Lambert on Île Saint-Louis, in Paris.
