Location: Merignac, France Year: 2024 Architects: Keno Architects Photography by: Louis Piquemil
The project consists of the refurbishment and extension of a house from the 1930s in Mérignac, near Bordeaux in France.
The whole project consists of revealing the qualities of the existing, increasing its possibilities without artificializing much the garden. The refurbishment is structured around the existing central pavilion from the 1930s, making this volume the center of the house.
The original composition of the façade has qualities of classical symmetry composition. Subsequently, in the 80s, successive grafts: the garage and an annex, came to diminish the whole, creating a heterogeneous whole. The project took over the entire existing structure was thus consolidated and braced, both by concrete frame devices to create openings to the outside, and by a recovery of the wooden framework and frame elements. A wooden post in the center of the living room, takes the loads of the roof, and proposes a dissociation of the dining room space and the living room space, while affirming the essence of the wooden structure of the original house.
Around the central core, 3 extensions are created, housing bedrooms. These separate spaces allow to restore privacy to each bedroom and natural day light. The volumes of the extension are part of the vocabulary of symmetry composition of the existing: the expression of three simple and raw black volumes that come from either side to reveal the pavillon’s entrance and existing facade. The generous windows of the three volumes created on the sides respond to each other with a concrete grey base echoing the existing.
The black of the burnt wood deliberately contrasts with the white of the existing material. Burnt wood is a natural material worked manually by a local company. The burnt texture ensures the durability of the material over time. The flaky texture of the burnt wood changes its shine depending on the light and the time of day.
In the old configuration of the house, a single façade brought light to the entire house. We rethought the entire layout of the house by making the pavilion a large living room: a living area. The restored pavilion opens onto patios to the East and West sides. The patios are designed as thresholds of life at the articulation between interior and exterior. These in-between spaces, these voids of possibilities, allow multiple uses. Users can also settle in the wooded patio to the West, take out a chair and read in the sun or set up a dining table in summer in the mineral patio to the East. Text description by the architects.
