View of the entrance and the south facade.

situation plan 1:500

View from the terrace into the interior. The inhabitants evolve in the space feeling the presence of the trees all around.

The house is a secondary residence for holidays. The relationship between interior with the sea as well as the interaction with the forest were very important for the client. The main commun space is used as a multi-purpose room; its exibility is very appreciated during the vacations.

section 1:500
The house is located on a marvellous site, Bassin dArcachon, close to the Atlantic Ocea, west from Bordeaux. The area has a magnicient view and it had never been built. Fifty pine trees 30 meters high had grown on the ground, a sand dune whose crest is 15 m higher than the water. View of the house from the shore.

North facade and forest around.

Habitus/Lifestyle

Section A-A 1: 50

Bassin dArcachon,Google earth.

Context/Resources

Casa en Lege in France

Habitat in Venice | Cycle Bachelor BA6 | Thorie et critique du projet | EPFL Atelier Isa Strm | Student: Sergio Torres Data Location: Cap Ferret, France, 444156.07N - 11037.24O Architect: Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal Year: 1998 Client: A family of three persons, the father and his two sons. Size: 180 m2 + 30 m2 (terrace) It was our effort to built something very light, just to put it into the site and maybe to consider that the landscape was there to saty but that the construction could in 20 or 30 years disappear without damage to the ground. Its an attitude of respect but also its an attitude of taking pleasure, of taking the benet of being inside. You can respect the place, at the same time it is not reductive
By Anne Lacaton interviewed in Vienna in June 2003 for Magazine for architecture and Culture.

Construction Space Habitus Resources

For Lacaton & Vassal forme is not an architectural problem that must be repeatedly reworked but merely the nal aggregate condition of anarchitectural analysis of a particular situation. Forme is for them something that occurs, not a sculpture one shapes. It is not by chance that Lacaton & Vassal avoid the use of models in their work. Instead they prefer to design from inside to outside, by placing the program in such a way that it extends into space until, from within, it touches against the boundaries of the permitted built volume. Consequentely the external form of the building is frequently a result of the Building Code regulation. In the famous house in Cap Ferret, the house had to keep minimum distance of four meters from both of the Neighbors and 15 meters from the sea. Thus the extent the house strtches towards the road was decided solely by the avaibe budget. The nal positioning of the building as a hovering volume among the trees is entirely conditioned by the concern to preserve the dunes and the trees on the site. In order to guarantee the best possible view of the Bassin dArcachon the singlestory building was inated to the maximum permissible building height of six meters so that the view of the sea is not interrupted by the planting along the sloping shoreline.

Nave architecture: Notes on the Work of Lacaton & Vassal by Ilka & Andreas Ruby for 2G libros in 2007

Material/Construction

B Elevation North 1 : 50 First-oor 1: 50 Section B-B 1: 50

Space/Organisation

The services and the bedrooms take place at the back of the house, in that way the main room can be a bigger space. The plan is as simple as possible to increase its fonctionnality. Here the plan and the form respond very directly to the program.
Construction plan detail, Angle facade west and south.
service block bedrooms terrace main room

The house is a 210 m2 platform on a single level, built on piles between 2 meters and 4 meters hight (depending on the slope of the ground); the frame is in steel. Facades are in corrugates aluminium with some opening panels in transparent carrugated plastic sheets. The underface of the oor is in the same corrugated aluminium. It reects the light coming from the reection on the water down the dune. The front facade towards the sea is completely transparent in glass sliding doors. Six trees go through the house. On the roof, transparent plain plastic sheets are tightened to the trunks with exible rubber. They can glide on the edges of the holes in the roof when the trees move with the wind.

The trees become familiars elements in the space without taking advantage of them in a scenographyc way.

Elevation West 1: 50

Steel structure under construction.

Detail of a tree crossing the roof.

Reects of the light on the underface.

The transparent facade permits the prolongation of the horizon of the house in relation with the sea and the forest.