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Architects: Claas architectes
- Area: 205 m²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Myriam Héaulmé
Text description provided by the architects. Some projects are more particular than others, so when my brother asked me to design his house, the personal stakes were great. As a young farmer his financial supports are limited, but he has regular opportunities to build and maintain buildings on the farm. In most cases, they are made of metal fabrics delivered in kit. This know-how combined with its working time flexibility allowed to conceive the project in self-construction.
The project implements its know-how (framework, cladding, roofing, etc.), while controlling the budget and the general architectural qualities.
The idea was to take up this idea of the kit, both to ensure a good implementation, and also to reduce the time of work onsite which is always delicate in self-construction. The kit is divided into two parts, the first one is made of three traditional wooden frames. They form a large covered volume which is able to accommodate two housing floors. This enclosure is covered with white corrugated metal sheets and polycarbonate to provide shade, light, a view to the farm and privacy with neighbors. It allows to anticipate a future floor in case of the family enlargement without modifying the exterior aspect of the construction.
A small box, inside this first enclosure, is the heated volume, also made of prefab balloon frame. This minimum single storey living area does not lie at the center of the first perimeter. On the contrary, the two nested boxes expand or get closer giving to the covered areas a programmatic orientation.
Heated spaces and buffer spaces complement each other, in summer the house expands towards the exterior overflowing to the garden, during the mid season the buffer spaces act as a privilege outdoor space and during winter the house folds inside the walls. The house morphology is changing with the seasons, a climate geography of housing that replace the simple geometry of the plan.
Originally published on May 30, 2017.
