Designing the House
When I was trying to 'design' the house I basically started by putting
down the essentials and wants then the limitations. I don't have a
family, I don't want a huge place - but enjoy friends visiting - many
of whom are wheelchair users. I love being outside, but the years are
passing so I don't want a high maintenance garden. Provence must have
the most wonderful climate in the world - but it can be suffocatingly
hot in summer (like 40C) and bitterly bitterly cold in winter -
frequently down to -14C and I've even known it down to -17C. But
wonderful sunshine for 300 days a year!
The wants list read like : open plan living area, a kitchen open to dining room, 2
bedrooms, 2 shower rooms (on en-suite with my bedroom - the other close
to the guest bedroom but not en-suite), utility room, covered terrace,
winter garden, fire place, all essential rooms on one level and
wheelchair accessible - including turn space for getting through doors
and flat level showers, office/work room, good storage space (cupboards
and attic) and as ecological in materials and design as reasonably
possible. I wanted the house to be centred on the terrace - where I know
I will spend a good deal of time.
The limitations
ran like: Maximum size 127m2 (based on 0.08 x the size of the building
plot excluding any non-constructable wet zones), couldn't have any windows on the
North West side or less then 4 m from it because the house would be on the
boundary, nor on the North East side (other than ventilation windows)
because the house would be really tucked into the bamboos. No ultra
modern styles are liked by the Mairie (we are in a National Park), no
complex roof designs and traditional roof tiles only! Also because the middle field was small, the
house had to be relatively compact to leave garden space at the front
and to respect the 4m clearance from the flanking land boundaries.
Basically the house couldn't be more than 12 m by 12 m foot print and on
limit of the NW boundary.
Certainly
the biggest problems were to find a way to arrange the rooms so that
those with windows were to the SE and SW sides only and to respect the
4m space from the house to boundaries on the NE and SW sides.
After
hundreds of sketches - the design I came up with has an entrance on
the sunny SW 'inviting' side leading into the dining room. The protruding entrance
porch fits into the widening land shape in that corner (exactly to 4m
from boundary). The living room is open onto the living room, giving a
good feeling of volume and semi open to the kitchen separated by a 1.4m high back to the work surface. A big sliding
door from the kitchen opens onto the half-covered terrace. The dining
room, living room, kitchen and terrace for a big square of well lit and
arranged living space. The terrace is half roofed and the other half is
glass and the front will be closed off by 'galandage' windows (windows
that slide completely into the walls on either side). This way - in
winter the galandage windows will be closed and together with the half
glass roof provide light and passive heating with the lower sun. In the
summer an electric 'store' (or blind) will close over the glass half of
the terrace roof and the galandage windows completely open will give a
cool covered terrace protected from the sun. I think paving the terrace
in the same slabs at the patio in front of the house, and having lots of
plants there will give the feeling of the garden entering into the
house. I love being outside so I am sure this terrace/winter garden will
be a space I'll use a huge amount!
My
bedroom (at the front) will have its own shower room with level shower
(a Gustav Klimt mosaic on the wall!) and views down the valley. It wont
really get the first sun as I would have liked but I have to compromise
somewhere!
The
guest bedroom will be at the back and separated from the rest of the
house by 2 doors, for better sound proofing and to be able to
separate this part of the house (not heated as much) when no one is
staying. The second shower room will be next to the guest bedroom but
not en-suite so
that the toilet will double up as the guest WC for visitors and - if
there are other over-flow guests sleeping up-stairs.
Utility
room - big enough for all the technical equipment and washing machine
etc, and located in the NE (coldest/darkest) corner of the house. Also
good location for the plumbing in being close to the 2 shower rooms.
All
the windows will be 'longer than wide' to give a feeling of being able
to step out into the garden. This is also better for wheelchair users to
be able to look out too. The tradition here in France is to have
shutters - which I am not going to have - too much work in painting
them, too hard to reach outside to shut and I hate coming into a dark
room! So instead I will have bars on the bedroom and dining room
windows - to stop the uninvited entering through my low-easy-to-step-in-windows so I
can leave the windows open day and night! The choices available today
in styles of bars mean they can become more of an attractive feature
than prison like. Maybe some sort of vegital form.
Another
French tradition I am breaking away from is having the windows flush
with the inside walls (opening inwards). The French can't understand
why in the UK we have windows flush with the outer wall and opening
outwards ! I've decided to have my windows 10cm in from the outer wall
and opening in the thickness of the wall - inwards. With the thickness
of the walls they shouldn't protrude more than 15cm into the room when
fully open. Also - most of the windows will have the oscilo system
(hinging at the bottom and opening at the top). This means I can have
ventilation and still keep the local moggies and leaves out! I have chosen not
to have them flush with the outside wall so as to be able to have a
roller mosquito screen. It is a humid area and you don't need many
mosquitoes to make your nights hell.
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The
upstairs will be a mezzanine (4.5m by 4.5m) into the roof space and
very useful as an office and work room. Then I can leave all my bits and
pieces of sewing or paints around with out cluttering up the house!
The view from the mezzanine room should be amazing - looking across to
the village and the Chateau on the hill. To keep the house as low and as possible I
wanted to use the attic space rather than a full 2 level house.
From
the mezzanine there will be a door leading into an attic room above the
utility room and guest shower room. The height in this part will be
about 2m at the entrance end down to 1.3m at the lower end measuring
4.5m by 3m. Plenty big enough to store loads of things and even double
up as a bunk room if more than one couple of friends or family come to stay.
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| Cross section of the centre of the house. |
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| Front of the house - view as you arrive down the drive. |
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| The South West side of the house. |
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| The NE side - totally tucked into the bamboos. |
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