Description

The main idea was to build a house that would be filled with natural light, but at the same time protecting the inhabitants from the neighbors. The project is developed around a patio responding to this need of intimacy. The outside envelope is opaque whereas the interior facade is made of glass.

Baumit materials

- Baumit NanoporTop Life 0019

About the building

The Maison Spirale is built in a suburban area in Normandy near Caen, in the context of a standardized housing development. As housing developments are progressing over the agricultural areas showing typical examples of projects with no identity – which we may call the “architectural no man’s land” – the project was to be critically opposed to this homogenous landscape and needed to express a different typology. The main idea behind this project was to build a house that would be filled with natural light, but at the same time protecting the inhabitants from the neighbors. The project is developed around a patio responding to this need of intimacy. The outside envelope is opaque whereas the interior facade is made of glass. The volume of the house is compact (150m2) and evolves around the patio like a spiral open to the south, optimizing solar gain and giving the opportunity for different views on the garden and horizon.