Territorial Hospitality

Wood tells the story of Brittany

For Gîtes de France in Rennes, we crafted 280 sqm with a signature blend of wood and light, where 24 employees cultivate the art of rural hospitality.

280 m²
2 months
2024

bois_lumiere

Concept

Wood as a way to express the territory

Gîtes de France is the French tourism network of rural holiday accommodations. The 2024 project delivered 280 sqm in Rennes with a signature blend of wood and light, for 24 employees.

Context

In the heart of Rennes, Gîtes de France entrusted Kytom with the transformation of 280 sqm for 24 employees, delivered in 2024. The network brings together 42,000 rural accommodations and wanted its own offices not to look like a neutral office floor, while its teams speak every day with hosts settled in stone farmhouses, longères and town houses.

The floor, located in central Rennes, is home to employees in direct phone contact with these local hosts. Kytom managed the operation end to end, audit, design, execution and handover, within a tight budget and over two months of effective work on site.

280 sqm to deliver in 2 months on a constrained budget

The brief came down to a difficult equation: translating the world of rural hospitality into an urban office, without budget drift and without stretching the schedule beyond eight weeks.

The space audit revealed three structuring constraints: an obsolete partitioning that carved the surface into closed offices, uniform lighting unsuited to screen work, and a technical false ceiling to be entirely redone to run the 6A cabling for the 24 workstations. The two-month schedule ruled out any pilot or prototype phase, every material decision had to be validated before strip-out.

The dual requirement, a guesthouse atmosphere and administrative functionality for 24 employees in open space, shaped the technical trade-offs from the very first week.

Open floor, two lighting layers, wood signature

Two decisions structured the project. First, the shift to a single open floor: the complete strip-out of the existing partitions freed up the 280 sqm in one continuous space, a condition for bringing natural light all the way to the core of the floor and for installing 24 workstations in a linear layout with no residual closed offices.

The meeting rooms were rebuilt with movable partitions, allowing the surface to be reconfigured according to the activity load. Second, the work on two lighting layers: warm temperatures (2700 K) on the partner reception side, neutral light (4000 K) on the operational floor for prolonged screen work.

This dual temperature, integrated into the redesigned false ceiling, avoids the uniform lighting that would have flattened the wood identity. The wall coverings and oak furniture, set on a carpet in earthy tones, provide the acoustic absorption of an open space for 24 people. The mineral wall palette articulates the wood without lapsing into rural pastiche.

The sequencing of the trades, strip-out, plastering, electrical, flooring, furniture, was held to eight weeks without slippage, despite two design adjustments during the works.

Delivered in 2 months, 95% reusable furniture, 90% recyclable

The two-month schedule was met, the client moved in without any interruption of activity. The open-floor bet was confirmed in use: the modularity of the meeting rooms with movable partitions allowed the teams to reconfigure the surface three times since handover, with no Kytom intervention.

On the materials side, 95% of the installed furniture is reusable and 90% of the components are recyclable, consistent with a network whose promise rests on existing buildings restored and revalued rather than demolished. The recycled materials rate reaches 30% and projected repairability stands at 90%, supported by the choice of solid wood species and demountable furniture rather than glued chipboard.

The 24 employees now work on a floor whose materials, oak, wool carpet, mineral plaster, belong to the same register as those they describe every day to the network’s hosts.

280

sq m transformed

months of work

workstations

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