Hotel Belvedere du Rayon Vert: A vibrant Integration Center for Protected Heritage Regeneration 

42° 26’ 36.672’’ N, 3° 10’ 1.38’’ E; C Cerbère, France. The existing site is Hôtel le Belvédère du Rayon Vert , at the border between France and Spain, designed in Art Deco style by the architect Léon Baille, which has now lost the function and importance it gained after its construction in 1932. The idea behind the Belvédère  was allowing wealthy people, travelling from France to Spain and vice versa, a place to stay while waiting for the train change. The building used to comprise a garage, a petrol station, a tennis court, a casino, a cinema, a restaurant and a ballroom and a tennsi court on the rooftop. The hotel officially closed down in 1983 but its prestige and glory was well gone when the Spanish civil war started, in 1936, due to the lack of people trans-passing the border and because of technological innovations in the transportation sector. The hotel was listed as one of the only 5 protected Art Deco monuments in France.

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The new project aims to address the migrant crisis in Europe, creating a revised integration centre organised it into 3 main parts.

• individual integration of the users in their daily and domestic life

• integration within the community of the users, possibly coming from very diverse places. Hence creating an open and free space for interaction

• integration within the local french community within the existing hotel being a treasure for the people of cerbere

This type of integration is possible creating a separation of spaces that do not compromise the protection of the heritage using instead a touchable layer, which is the rooftop or ex-tennis court and providing different services there through the design of new structures that will be connected to the hotel and to the public using the staircase running through the building.