Site Specific: Ravaux
Littoral. - Arcachon, France, 2025
L This project concerns an aesthete family from the northeast of France, in love with Arcachon, seeking to transform three small apartments on a single plot into one holiday home.
Arcachon, with its urbanism rooted in the past, imposes pseudo-vernacular mouldings on every new façade. The project accepts this constraint: it neither alters the volume nor the street-facing façades. It engages with the rule by subtly stepping aside from it.
The existing structure is liberated: partitions removed, lightweight floors dismantled, superfluous spaces stripped away. Two voids are opened, cutting through the heart of the upper floors, allowing light to infuse the living areas.
On the ground floor, the earth becomes structured beneath our feet: insulated concrete slabs ensure stability, a promise of longevity. The existing concrete is polished and lightened. The street-facing façades are sealed off, reinforcing the thin brick walls, ensuring their footing.
Around the voids, timber frames emerge: structural braces for the walls and roofs, insulated envelopes. One is installed on the ground floor for daytime living, the other upstairs for nighttime use — two rhythms, two ways of inhabiting the space. All are clad in Douglas fir boarding, except around the voids, which are left bare, open.
Day and night are articulated through the glasshouse: it separates, distributes, and creates a sensitive thermal buffer. It doesn’t just traverse the house — it orchestrates its functions, movement, and intimacy.
The timber structures facing the glasshouse and patio are glazed; opening to the light, transmitting views. The joinery explores a gesture that is simple yet precise: the glass is bonded directly to the wood, avoiding the use of aluminium. The openings are standard sliding pocket doors. The glasshouse roof becomes a sky of glass tiles.
An overhang gathers rainwater — a gesture that is both technical and restrained. Air flows through: an air intake system is integrated into the front door; discreetly, tile vents allow the house to breathe.
A galvanized steel staircase connects the levels. And at the heart of the house, a kitchen island — a pivot of everyday life, a place to anchor shared moments.
NOTES
Many thanks to Benjamin Coustès for his help in compiling this post.
Photography by Littoral.
For more on Littoral please visit their website here.
Posted 3rd October 2025.