Stairs lead past lumpy cork-covered walls to a rooftop swimming pool at a house in the south of France by architect Raphaëlle Segond.
The pool and a ground floor bedroom occupy one part of the two-storey Maison Beauvallon, while an adjoining concrete block accommodates a living room, kitchen and additional bedrooms.
The open-plan living room covers the majority of the first floor and opens out to the pool and terrace.
Floors throughout the house are of polished concrete.
Other French houses on Dezeen include one with stone screens and another with black-painted bricks and larch window frames – see more projects in France here.
See also: more stories about swimming pools in our special feature.
Photography is by Philippe Ruault.
The following text is from the architects:
House in Beauvallon, Var (83), France
The first glimpse at this house is a wall of cork which separates the site in two from a North-South diagonal creating a garden along the street for the entrance and a garden on the side of the valley protected from wind and from the sounds of the street.
In Beauvallon, the slopes are planning to protect both the sights and the period of sunshine.
Actually, houses are arranged in staggered rows leading a way of sight towards mid-day.
Three metres above the highest point on the site, the Mediterranean See is in front of us.
In fact, seeing the sea from the lounge and the swimming pool was an important request of the client in the program of this house.
Thus, at this height, in a forest of oaks and strawberry trees, we dispose the lounge facing the view.
And from the lounge we reach the swimming pool which is struggled between two walls of cork.
Under the lounge, the natural slope of the site was kept in order to hold the next part of the program : five rooms with individual bathrooms and a kitchen-dining room.
Rooms are consuming more than the half of the living surface.
They are melted in the natural and built landscape, this way all the bedrooms are crossed and passed through.
The continuation is quite simple: concrete, glass, aluminium and rough steel were the only ones materials used in this house.
Concrete is used for the structure and floors, walls were confined in wooden boards and floors were polished.
Doors and cupboards were made of wood then steel and glass were used for the facades between structure elements.
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Client: private
Type of construction: holiday house of 250 m2 with a swimming pool
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Completion: 2011
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Location: Domaine de Beauvallon, Township of Grimaud (83, France)
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Architect: Raphaëlle Segond, workshop located in Marseilles (13, France)
Project Manager : Jonhattan Inzerillo
Concrete & masonry: Paul Ciotta & Fils, maçons
Windows crafters: Maria Aluminium
Electrician: Nicolas Espitalier électricité
See also:
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| House on Paros Island by React Architects |
Villa Paya-Paya by Aboday architects |
House in Andros by KLab architects |
Great house, totally livable! I'm not sure though if I like the dining table + chairs, and the fence is simply ridiculous..
Where is the shipping container bed room located on the site?
I have now added a site plan to the drawings, which explains where the fifth bedroom is located.
Really fine house with its disciplined palette of materials.
brilliant, just brilliant. nothing deceives in this house
Nice to see an admirable lady architect who (literally) elevates architecture to art.
Very pure, very peaceful; this house is unique, unusual and pleasing to the eye, thus romantic to me, seldom associated with present architecture.
So much news but this is different & rare, very impressive.
What does her gender have to do with it? What is a 'lady architect'? Surely she is an architect, the same as any other…?
It surely cannot be defined simply in words.
Maybe it's just the tiny difference in thinking or reasoning that just makes the concrete & overal architecture less harsh then most tend to be these days.
Thin slabs, steel and glass usage of the house create a good perspective and lighten the mass effect from exterior. Very nice brutalist approach of residential design.
I cannot stop looking at the textured concrete. I love that roof slab that extends all the way out, with the long lines in the pattern, love it.
But yeah that fence, thats funny! At first i thought it was a joke, but now i like it. Simplistic, rough, honest. Works for me.
what's with the chain link fence??
yeah that ruins it for me, it looks really cheap
About the fence, it literally disappears in the sunlight. The architect for the Batiment de France thought it was most discreet and the fence is not visible from a small distance… it does not impose on the architecture and the pure lines of the house are not closed in by a heavy steel fence.
This is a great project, a really good balance of textures. It seems like a lovely house to live in
whats the roof made of?
Prison or House. looks like a good place to commit suicide
Very impressive and pure design I don’t like exposed concrete on the ceiling.