Architect | ARTELABO architecture |
Location | Saint-André-de-Sangonis, France |
Area | 80m2 (861 sq.ft.) |
Photographs | Marie-Caroline Lucat |
Located in a village in the south of France, the project of “quiet villa” sits on a tiny plot of land with a gorgeous view on the Hérault Valley. The aim of the project is to create the conditions for an intimacy, an introverted house, entirely turned towards the landscape.
The overall geometry of the house is based on a repeated sequence of four volumes, inscribed in a regular pattern, enclosed within a peripheral wall, and organizing four courtyards within the dwelling. Their form, with two slopes of roof, evokes a small house.
Closed on three sides, the home is completely secret and entirely focused on the landscape. Its powerful contrast between its opaque and closed external appearance and the intensity of the light provided by courtyards, gives strength to its interior space.
A large wide fixed frame in the living room extends the house to the landscape. All rooms open on one, two or three courtyards and the panorama, through a single system of aligned glass doors.
The same flooring is used throughout the project, which creates unification between the spaces of the house and those of the courtyards, which are real living rooms and extensions of the interior spaces.
The house exterior basic shape refers to the archetypal image of the french ‘Provence’ villa. However, the project stands out clearly from the traditional procedure, by the way it ‘deconstructs’ and recomposes the elements in a new and unexpected expressive way.