Connected House
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Connected House
This large house is located in the Boulogne-Billancourt area, just at the periphery of Paris, which has a substantial reputation in the field of modern architecture with buildings by such figures as Le Corbusier and Robert Mallet-Stevens. Jakob + MacFarlane relate their experimental design for this house to precisely these modern buildings in the neighborhood. Inspired by its location in the leafy suburban west of Paris, the house is conceptually based on natural tree systems, and can be seen as an experimental continuation of the work of the architects' prestigious predecessors.
With four levels above grade and a basement, the house has a center made of metal and glass, with a faceted envelope on top. A vertical circulation core in wood extends through all levels of the house, including a roof terrace. The architects intended this project to be a "tree house"-starting with the tree metaphor, which they apply to the successive layers of the design and to its branched tubular structure "designed as a three-dimensional matrix that becomes the exoskeleton, and also allows the reading of the different layers." Like the concentric rings of a tree, the house was planned around a central vertical circulation core that climbs five levels from basement to terrace.
From this core, the major programmatic spaces of the house become the next ring, followed by the outer layer: the façade with its faceted outer skin or bark.
Geothermal systems provide heating and energy, and the house is resolutely connected in every sense of the contemporary term, both through home automation and integration with the urban network. A black metal fence around the property was preserved to accentuate the fundamentally homogeneous character of the avenue. Holm oak and evergreen white oak were planted at the edge of the plot to the north and south, along with a few other trees such as Scots pine and magnolia, emphasizing the integral and innovative aspect of this architectural design, which stands out while simultaneously taking a place of honor in its neighborhood.
Completed in 2016
Client Private
Programme Private house
Team Batiserf, Inex, Bollinger & Grohman, Cap Paysage
Photos : Roland Halbe