La petite maison
A house renovation taking care of luminosity, thermal and hygrometric constraints, using materials in their raw form for what they are good at.
The Location
In town, a house and a garage side by side, narrow, looking towards a garden that gathers water running from the street. A single facade opens to the south, a dark and gloomy ground floor similar to a cellar. Damp is rising through the porous stones, sign of the building's position on ancient marshland.
The programme
A “dirty” area, insulated but not heated, the workshop; in a mirror image of this space, the house, “clean”, very well insulated yet breathable, keeping the warmth of a wood-burning stove in the winter, and increase the inertia of the cool stone wall on the summer.
One thing is forbidden: paint. Materials must be used for what they are.
The project
Opening the wooden floor, off-setting it from the walls to help the light reach the lower living space. Constructing an area from ribbon shapes, along the various work surfaces (cutting, storing, washing, cooking...) and helping that lengthways movement.
Southward, expanded steel shutters filter the views on the outside and the thick hemp/lime rendering on the inside increases the building calorific inertia; in other areas, poplar reflects the light whilst on the floor, a breathable lime-based concrete over a ventilated stone base regulates the hygrometry of the building.
