Maison C is a stunning modern family home that has been designed by Lode Architecture, located about twenty kilometers from Paris, in Île-de-France, a region of France. Completed in 2010, the clients wanted for this new home a voluntary architectural approach, free from conventions, and totally bespoke. The main themes were quickly identified: continuities and discontinuities, sharing spaces and intimate spaces, distances and visual relationships between children and parents, arrival sequence and position of the garage and integration of the pool.

Revisiting the uninhibited Californian architecture houses, windows and widely adapted to the context of the larger suburbs, the project scripted the comings and goings of vehicles and staged the pool at the center of family life. Across the width of the plot, the horizontal shape of the house is organizing a garden at the front and a patio on the back. The whole house fits into the natural slope of the land to be part of the landscape. The old orchard is fully architected.

We discover the house flowing along the garden before slipping under the volume that houses the parking. A private staircase leads directly to the heart of the house. The rear of the house is built around a patio. This protected view of the surrounding houses space creates a visual game between the space of parents and children. The sequence kitchen-dining-room-pool is organized on an axis that connects the pool deck to patio. The lounge overhanging glazed and hand-else, enjoys sweeping views overlooking the garden and open views over the rooms for children.

The choice of a single storey house offers here, in the absence of compactness, the ability to guide all living areas to the south. Solar gain in the summer is controlled by advanced roofing and controlled by external sliding shutters. The pool and terrace also benefit from the most favorable exposure. Pond water is heated by the roof panels. A heat pump also provides heating and hot water in the house. The patio planted north opposite the mineral soil of the south facade accentuates the temperature difference between the two facades. This architectural feature promotes natural cooling by convection of the house without using air conditioning. Isolated from the outside house, enjoying the large inertia of the concrete slabs. If the architecture of the house incorporates these devices sustainability in design, aesthetics tends to break free, in the idea of ​​a mature ecology: an invisible ecology.

Photos: Courtesy of Lode Architecture