BARBA JUPITER    


Studio for a painter / self-sufficiency in Energy

A magnificent yet overwhelming site. The Mediterranean cloaked in allure. Pine and evergreen oak trees, ochre lands, sand, and polished debris. And of course, the brilliant sea. A setting that could have closed off possibilities as quickly as it opened them. Hence, it was essential in this architecture to do everything possible to delay the encounter with this sublime event.

Visiting in May and August, it was striking to see how this site could transform. Although natural, it now belonged to those tourist spaces, filling with vacationers for a few weeks and returning to its insular appearance the remaining months. One had to, in fact, adapt to the elements and fit into an erratic rhythm. To accommodate and inhabit this space from time to time.

Immobile yet alive, this architecture draws nourishment from its surroundings, builds reserves, transforms the sun or wind into energy, absorbs or repels to create habitability. It may not have the complexity of a tree, but it carries an understanding of this Mediterranean territory within itself. It uses it to intertwine with this natural and fragile network. It is an architecture that not only opens up to the sea but also offers intimacy with the landscape.


Start date: 2020
Area: 970 sq. ft
Autonomous construction without access to water and electricity networks - Complex implementation - unique access by sea
Construction of an energy production unit
Structure in prefabricated composite materials
Recovery of existing local materials on the island

Piste du Cap des Médès
Île de Porquerolles
83400 VAR


FRANCE


DAIKOKUBASHIRA  


Studio / balanced structure

In a rural landscape, where fields and woods structure the terrain, large farms stretch horizontally. Under their corrugated metal skin, machines stand still, awakening the chromatic palette with reds, oranges, blues, and yellows. Here, modernity and wreckage blend, vernacular and rationalism coexist. This context absorbs paradoxes, and usage has sometimes given birth to unique geometries or appearances.

Large blocks of rocks, extracted from the nearby quarry where purple shale is mined, form the foundation. Tall glass walls let in the daylight. The aluminum roof allows rain to flow on bad weather days. The external architecture of this small workshop is designed as armor, where time passes but leaves no mark.

On sunny days, this same architecture comes to life. The façade can be manipulated and opens widely amid the tall grass. The interior is adorned with vibrant colors, blending with the oaks, pines, and broom shrubs. The single supporting column signifies the equilibrium of this structure, where the immense pivoting window is anchored by the mass of rocks. It's a clever mechanism where each element is tensioned with its environment. A fragility that reflects the sensitivity of the client to this place, wanting to preserve a certain break from the original forms scattered in the surroundings.


Start date: 2022
Area: 540 sq. ft
New construction of a workshop Metal structure and cover. Counterweight in granite blocks extracted from the nearby quarry to the site
Rainwater harvesting - wood heating - waste water treatment >> Minimal energy consumption

Route départementale D55
Commune de Saint-Just
35550 ILLE-ET-VILLAINE

FRANCE



L’ĒTOILE DE MER


Beach Hotel / demolition and reuse

An Hybrid Object, with a program sometimes as extensive as a hodgepodge inventory, the hotel is not always appreciated. However, it elicits from everyone a more distinct opinion than one might suspect. Above all, it awakens in many people a mixture of nostalgia and insomnia-laden journeys.

And here, even before discussing space, it was memories, old films, and dreams that fueled the commission. The place did not yet exist, but the clients already had stories to tell it. They wanted to relive scenes experienced or glimpsed, to share moments of life with their guests. GÉOMÉTRAL had to summon a specific hotel universe and create the architectural conditions to accommodate these stories.

The preamble could be the implementation of this hotel. It tells the story of three houses brought together but heavily transformed. While their individual identities will be erased, and the facades will fall, these houses outline a framework and a plan upon which the new project is constrained. It's an architecture of reuse, where the existing is transformed to minimize its impact on the land and the landscape.


22 sea view rooms
A restaurant and a beach bar
Landscaped garden

Start date: 2021
Surface: not divulged
Demolition of the 3 houses present on the site
Conservation of foundations and swimming pools
Reuse of existing materials from demolition
Construction of a hotel and its technical equipment
Restructuring of the landscape with endemic species

Plage d’Héraclée
La Croix-Valmer
83420 VAR

FRANCE