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Terraced House
Terraced House
Villard-de-Lans, France
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Terraced House
Villard-de-Lans, France
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2021
SIZE
0 sqft - 1000 sqft
BUDGET
$100K - 500K
The house is situated in the middle altitude alpine village of Villard de Lans, on the Vercors plateau.
It is an infill project on 400m2 plot of land with 7 meters of elevation change. The idea underpinning the project is to limit site-work by sculpting the building to the topography rather that the topography to the building. The spaces thus deploy as a series of terraced volumes, each with a unique elevation relative to the south eastly limestone mountain face.
While the historic vernacular of the Vercors plateau has been synonymous with stone masonry construction for more than 3 centuries, in 2011 the entire plateau was redefined by the French National Environmental Code as a “medium” seismic activity risk zone. Consequently, it is now extremely onerous and unreasonably expensive to justify new load-bearing stone masonry constructions. The project strategy was thus to identify existing available material and human resources and to mobilize them in service of a new shared architectural language. To this end, the plateau’s other most dominant resource, timber, has begun to define a contemporary vernacular. Timber not in its generic sense but specific local species of timber that are harvested at specific times, sawn and assembled using local resources and know-how.
Beyond its integration into the material and cultural context the house’s orientation, as well as its dimensioning and openings, favorize energy performance relative to the seasons. In winter, the roof overhangs and openings are designed to maximize solar gain and sunlight in the southern and eastern facing living spaces, and to isolate them from the north wind. In summer, the roof overhangs and openings are designed to shade the glazing from the sun's rays to the south, while openwork wooden slats protect the glazing from horizontal rays to the west.
It is an infill project on 400m2 plot of land with 7 meters of elevation change. The idea underpinning the project is to limit site-work by sculpting the building to the topography rather that the topography to the building. The spaces thus deploy as a series of terraced volumes, each with a unique elevation relative to the south eastly limestone mountain face.
While the historic vernacular of the Vercors plateau has been synonymous with stone masonry construction for more than 3 centuries, in 2011 the entire plateau was redefined by the French National Environmental Code as a “medium” seismic activity risk zone. Consequently, it is now extremely onerous and unreasonably expensive to justify new load-bearing stone masonry constructions. The project strategy was thus to identify existing available material and human resources and to mobilize them in service of a new shared architectural language. To this end, the plateau’s other most dominant resource, timber, has begun to define a contemporary vernacular. Timber not in its generic sense but specific local species of timber that are harvested at specific times, sawn and assembled using local resources and know-how.
Beyond its integration into the material and cultural context the house’s orientation, as well as its dimensioning and openings, favorize energy performance relative to the seasons. In winter, the roof overhangs and openings are designed to maximize solar gain and sunlight in the southern and eastern facing living spaces, and to isolate them from the north wind. In summer, the roof overhangs and openings are designed to shade the glazing from the sun's rays to the south, while openwork wooden slats protect the glazing from horizontal rays to the west.
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