Ban-sur-Meurthe House / Studiolada

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The house is insulated by straw insulation and the structure grid is based on the dimension of a bale of straw. The exterior cladding and the shutters are made of Douglas of Vosges. The interior walls are made of wooden framework and they are covered by oak boards of Vosges. All of these elements were made by Il Était Un Arbre. The exterior triple-gazed and pine joineries were made by Faymont sawmill and installed by Lecomte.Text description provided by the architects.This 126m² house is located in the Straiture Valley, a place marked by its topography and forest vegetation. The simple archetypal volume in the gable roof of this house is oriented to the downstream landscape. The house was thought to be constructed in a limited zone so that the natural surface of the land could be preserved.The lower floor and the wooden framework of the walls and the roof are made of spruce of Vosges from the Mandray sawmill. They are reinforced by boards placed diagonally, a concept that avoids the employment of the “industrial wood” and the “recomposed wood” like glulam or OSB panels that come from different regions or even other countries.The location of this house in the seismic zone imposes some anti-earthquake infrastructure in the concrete foundation bounded to the granite blocs. These blocs are made of granite of Bresse provided by Petitjean and installed by Isobalt.The floor of the ground floor is made of clay composed of a special floor composition made by Argilus and installed by Terraterre. This mineral material has perfect inertia to refresh the space during the hot seasons and to retain the heat during the cold seasons. The main heating is provided by a wood stove and there are complementary punctual heaters installed in specific rooms if necessary.The interior joinery, the staircase in ash, the kitchen, the furniture and the doors in spruce, the whole in solid wood, all of this to emphasize the quality of the material rather than quantity. The Vaxelaire enterprise chose to handwork the wood instead of buying ready-made panels.The interior finishes and the furniture are made of oak and spruce boards. These living materials offer a sensorial atmosphere: tannin parfum, colors, various patterns, and a warmth strength. Conceiving with solid wood allows us to ensure the local source of all the wood used for the structure and furniture.This architecture, implanted in this singular context, calls for a located construction with local materials, traditional know-how, and local craftsmen. This project experiments with the usage of local resources.Following this reasoning, this “livable barn” rests on 12 granite blocs in order to limit its contact with the ground and it also gives the impression that the house is floating above the the surface. In order to incorporate the building into the existing landscape and to recall the old farms' esthetics, the four façades are built with vertical Douglas cladding, flanked by wooden shutters inspired by the railings we can find in the mountains.