House in the Trees / OECO Architectes

+21

Description submitted by the project team. The clients, a couple from the Paris region who were planning to spend their retirement in the south of France, entrusted us with the project. The house will serve as their main residence and will also offer them a seasonal rental activity. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all communications and design discussions with clients were conducted via video call, which was an unusual but satisfying approach. The first in-person meeting took place when they started the work.

Located in a neighborhood of gulf developments on the Atlantic coastal dune, the design ideas sought to preserve as many existing trees as possible to provide a wooded, natural living environment. The project is a result of both program requirements and the available space between the preserved trees. The layout of the house is almost organic, with a succession of volumes and single-slope roofs. Inside, the various spaces offer views of the surrounding nature, which are framed vertically to capture the treetops and sky. The relationship between inside and outside is important, with the landscape designed to provide privacy from neighboring properties while maintaining a natural atmosphere. The topography of the dune is used to move the house slightly away from the road, except for the garage. In this way, the house is closed to the street and opens towards the garden.

One of the volumes is completely independent: it serves as an independent studio intended for seasonal rental or to receive family members. The studio is designed to prioritize privacy, with a vertical layout and a small garden around it. Inside, a double-height space connects the living room on the ground floor with the bedroom on the upper floor. The bedroom can be opened or closed using large wooden panels on pivots. A suspended wood and metal staircase joins the two levels, and the metal bars extend to form the bedroom railing.

Wood is very present in the project. The structure is predominantly built with half-timbered walls and a traditional timber frame, with only the foundation and ground floor being concrete. The entire structure is clad in saturated black Douglas wood, so that it blends in with the pine bark and appears in different shades of black under the shade of the foliage. The walls and ceiling of the studio are clad in pine panels from the Les Landes region, while some walls of the house are clad in oak to accentuate the different volumes. As the clients were very minimalist, they wanted very little furniture and for everything to be integrated. All built-ins were custom designed and made from pine and oak with an oil finish.

The landscaping was designed to complement the construction and maintain the existing brush environment. Finally, the trees were preserved and the new plantings were strategically placed to hide the neighbors from view. The terrace, which unfolds seamlessly from the interior of the house, is bordered by sloping plantings that vary in size from small to large.