Biscuit house
This house is the fruit of a long reflection with customers passionate of contemporary architecture who had initially asked the architect Pierre Minassian to make an extension of their house. Over the course of the study, the desire for spatiality and relationship with nature took over and they decided to build a complete house on their ground in front of their original building.
The opportunity was indeed unique because they had a building plot in a small quiet street in the center of Lyon; which is particularly rare today.
So the AUM team collaborated on a project of house only made with raw materials: raw concrete, corten steel, glass and wood.
The house is constituted as a concrete envelope isolating a core of life open to the garden. This opening on the garden is transcribed by the footbridge going nowhere, crossing the living room to stop in front of the glazing like a sight, or a suggestion to go beyond the physical limits of the building. This notion is very important because it reflects an important point in the architect’s conception of contemporary architecture: architecture is the relationship that is created between conflicting and relational goods. The work of the architect is to determine the need of this relationship in order to establish the effect.
We therefore sought to determine the effect we wanted to create between the different spaces and the different functions of the house. Intimacy, exhibition immersion, suggestion ...
The functional program was to realize a house with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen / living room, office, basement, patio, pool and garden. The living area of the house is 280 m². The living areas are located on the ground floor and the bedrooms upstairs.
When all the architectural choices were predefined, the materials development and the determination of the construction processes were carried out, in close relation with the manufacturers who accepted their adapted products to satisfy the architecture of the building. Thus the concretization of the architecture could be adjusted on the site even by modifying mixtures and density of concrete for example. This relationship architect supplier is essential and beneficial to the building. The house, on the other hand, served as a hub for the manufacturers who had invested and wished to show the fruit of their investment. We have always sought to highlight the architect's role as a researcher, which in my opinion is his main function.
The architecture of the house is identifiable by 3 strong elements.
The crude concrete hull that envelops the house isolates its inhabitants from the busy street. The openings are simple and linear. The frames are all handcrafted in raw steel.
The parental chamber fillings are orientable corten steel panels articulated by a system of pulleys, cables and counterweights that allow the handling of heavy elements. They bring a dynamic to the architecture and reinforce the visual isolation of the room on the street.
The south facade is a largely glazed building made of steel and glass. Large swing doors open the living room on the outside and swiveling steel panels allow ventilation of the space. A raw concrete cantilevered table crosses the glass and can be used indoors or outdoors.
The swimming pool of the house, in the axis of stay is a 14 m x 3 swimming lane with a raw concrete diving board. We created a black and gray stripes with resin coating.
-Pierre Minassian and his AUM team
