The building of the Fondation is located on the historic site of Gâtebourse, the very place where Jean Martell settled in 1750, after founding his Cognac House in 1715. This innovative Bauhaus-style tower, designed by architect Jean Chalard, was built in 1929 by Paul and Maurice Firino Martell.

This ziggurat was built on a reinforced concrete orthogonal grid structure. Until 2005, it housed Martell’s bottling unit, when it was transferred to Lignères, in the municipality of Rouillac, leaving the building unused. On the occasion of the Maison’s tercentenary celebration in 2015, Martell decided to give it a new life and initiated an ambitious project to renovate, enhance and open up the site to the public before announcing the launch of its own fondation in 2016.
In order to respect the local urban planning, the environment and the beauty of the Cognac landscape and its history, the building renovation project was entrusted to the Bordeaux-based agency Brochet Lajus Pueyo, chosen for its expertise in this field. The site’s transformation was carried out in a High Quality Environmental standard.

This “Fabrique des transitions”, located in the heart of Cognac, comprises five levels :

•  The ground floor houses an 885 m2 exhibition hall dedicated to monographic or thematic exhibitions aimed at raising awareness among our audiences about transition issues.
• On the first floor are the production workshops (glass, wood, ceramics, etc.) which are intended to extend to the second floor, which will also house a documentary resource center, a material library, and an “upcycling station”.
•  The third floor will become a reception area managed by Maison Martell.
• On The fourth floor, the Fondation’s offices are designed as open workspaces
• Finally, the terrace offers a panoramic view. The Indigo, a tasting space operated by Maison Martell, has been open there since 2018 during the season (May-September). Its furniture and layout are the result of artistic commissions.