Tourist Information Centre, Batterie de Longues-sur-Mer

The Tourist Information Centre at Longues-sur-Mer by DBO Architectes is part of the wider redevelopment of the German battery site on the Normandy coast. Set between the preserved casemates, the visitor routes, and the open landscape above the D-Day beaches, the project brings together architecture, landscape, and interpretation.

The new reception building is carefully embedded into the ground. Its mass-coloured concrete, close to the tones of sand, clay, and Caen stone, allows it to sit quietly within the protected coastal setting. Above it, an accessible roof becomes a belvedere, offering a panoramic view across the historic site, the agricultural plateau, the sea, and the horizon.

The project does not treat the visitor centre as an isolated object. Paths, landforms, water-management trenches, parking areas, and interpretation points are organized as one continuous landscape, guiding visitors through a place marked by memory, geology, and the traces of war.