Maison de Famille
Je t’aime moi non plus
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Some projects mature very slowly until the day they become obvious. The Family House, purchased on a whim by the owners in 2008, was in an advanced state of disrepair. In 2012, the tenants left prematurely, and the owners had no choice but to organize some temporary renovation work before moving in themselves. A first sketch emerged in 2014, followed by a second in 2017, which did not materialize due to lack of time and the presence of 4 school-age children, making any relocation impossible. It would take until 2020, with the departure of the 2 eldest for their studies and a professional evolution of the couple, to finalize the project.
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The house, a beachside "échoppe" from the first half of the 20th century, had suffered numerous injuries. Inside, the original partition had been atomized, opened up to the point of jeopardizing the stability of the upstairs frame, devoid of its original partitions. On the garden side, the original openings had been widened to become simple French doors. Upstairs, the square and misaligned openings thwarted any attempt at a neoclassical restoration of the facade.
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The project embraces the random nature of the openings to propose a cathartic composition, disregarding all rules. On the ground floor, a large 8-meter-long bay window opens onto the garden. The existing load-bearing wall is preserved in the middle of the bay, and the four glass panels are hidden behind it when the window is open.
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The house is bi-morphic, with a classical face on the street side and an extra-territorial face on the garden side, and the interior extends this dual personality. For this, openings are created between the street and the garden, traversing the house, and a thickening device of the partitions between the rooms of the house is implemented. On the ground floor, a thick wall separates the garden-side living room from the entrance, the office, and the library on the street side. Upstairs, this wall pivots 90° and splits. Five openings are created, all different, paying homage to family houses with heavy stone walls, where the interstitial space between two rooms becomes a full-fledged experience.
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On the garden side, the living room extends to a terracotta terrace, the colorful reflection of which warms the off-white facade facing south. The terrace serves as a diving board for the white-tiled swimming pool, located 1 meter below. The guardrail, designed to ensure safety against falls, opens in its center to allow for diving.
