Place Alsace-Lorraine

Royal square structuring the fortified city of the 18th century, this vast quadrilateral is an emblematic space of the early reconstruction of Lorient. The architect Jean-Baptiste Hourlier works there from 1947. The commercial ground-floor buildings surrounding the square display a unity of material and architecture. But behind this classic appearance, marked by the use of stone and slate roofs, the square reveals a great modernity in particular in its construction. Stone-clad elements, prefabricated in the factory, are inserted with a crane into a concrete frame: a technique that allows to respond to the urgency of reconstruction. On the ground, the grid of slabs and cobblestones was designed to create a forecourt in front of the church and put it in perspective, with parking originally confined to the lateral spaces under the rows of trees.