atelier fernandez & serres

Villa 52 & Pavillon des Enfants . Saint-Raphaël

atelier fernandez & serres . photos: © Jean-Michel Landecy

The children’s cabin is a project on the heights of Saint-Raphaël on the Côte d’Azur, a site huddling in the luxuriant vegetation of cork oaks overlooking the Mediterranean.
Nested among the oaks, the cabin blends into the environment. Just its two main parts surface on the landscape.

© Atelier Fernandez & Serres

© Atelier Fernandez & Serres

© Atelier Fernandez & Serres

© Atelier Fernandez & Serres

The construction has two independent parts that are in fact linked together via a terrace that opens out onto the horizon. The smaller of the two rooms is a sleep area, the larger is used as a games room, which houses a billiard table.
The design is suggested by the site, a flat area and a notch cut into the hill.
This solid base is a mirror image of the ground, of roots, it reveals its constitution and its texture.
The project expresses the fragility of the site, the volumes give the impression of floating.
The cabin is designed to give the impression of a timber mass which has been hollowed out in the centre, it is framed by two ochre coloured walls that are a mix of concrete and stones from the site.
All the timber parts are distributed around a 5cm module, a dimension used as the pattern layout for the floors and the outside walls, the overall volume measurement is made up of harmonic proportions.
The inner space has been designed in such a way as to make it possible to see the structure of the residence, a lightweight framework made up of overlapping vertical and horizontal elements that seem to slide into one and other. This part of the structure, which is slightly raised from the sides heightens the perception of the cabin’s fragility.
An empty space is created between the walls in Ipe timber giving the impression of having been hollowed out of the mass.
The cabin interplays with its context, with its limits, its boundaries. Here, there are no boundaries between interior and exterior, everything is interior.
The customer enjoys the garden and the living area as a single constructed entity. The garden is an architectural space.
The cabin is a concentrated part of the landscape, from the interior of either part, vertical views, at varying heights, enhance the perception of the site. The views are powerful and contradictory, sometimes, of the ground, sometimes the trunks, or the horizon. The interior space expands, inviting one to question the visual limits. The angles in each room give way to doors offering a sidelong perception of the landscape.
The cabin takes on the colours of its environment, of its materials, ochre, green, blue, etc.

Villa 52 & Pavillon des Enfants,
Saint-Raphaël, France (2002-2005)
Architectes: atelier fernandez & serres, Stéphane Fernandez, Ivry Serres.
Paysagiste: françois Navarro, Grasse
BET bois: Gaujard Technologies, Avignon
Charpentier/ébéniste : Karémen Bois- Merle, Hyères