Les Planches
One of the keys to this process is the use of a single building element: a single plank of wood, with the same thickness and width, and a maximum length of 300 cm. Following this principle, each plank becomes a part of a whole, but with a precision adapted to the needs. The plank functions as a post, beam, frieze, or seat. This conscious choice of a single section promotes construction efficiency and an economical approach. It offers a functional aesthetic, where horizontality and verticality intersect.
Working with a single plank presents an opportunity for us to engage in an exercise of didactic design. Like Kapla pieces and the idea that constraint brings freedom, what emerges when we bring together the mind, hands, pencil, and model, with the directive of creating a welcoming space while evoking a vernacular spirit? We hope this will offer users the chance to engage with their eyes and hands, a way of deconstructing the design process for them as well. And perhaps, we hope, this will allow a dialogue with the architecture and those who conceive and construct it.
The plank suggests the idea of a stage where collective life unfolds, a space where people walk together, a word that carries images both dreamed and tangible. It is here, on this stage, that inhabitants meet, to chat over coffee, to dance, to sing — a place where the freedom to gather is expressed, where human relationships take root, in the simplicity of Hauteville-Gondon’s planks.
