Lacaton & Vassal

The inexpensive house is the result of a commission to build, on a low budget, a house for a couple with two children. Located in a discontinuous residential area, the house fits into the street profile. It’s a simple volume on a rectangular base that posits two open platforms. On a metal frame, one half, on the street side, is covered with opaque fiber-cement sheeting, and the other half, on the garden side, with transparent polycarbonate sheeting, forming a conservatory.

A wooden volume, clamped into the frame behind the opaque sheeting, defines an insulated and heated winter space opening onto the conservatory and the street-side exterior. The conservatory faces east and gets the early morning sun. It’s an inhabitable part of the house, equipped with ample ventilation panels for comfort in summer.

The mobile nature of the east and west facades enables the house to change from its most closed to its most open state according to the need and desire for light, transparency, intimacy, protection and ventilation. The inhabitable part of the house can vary according to the seasons, from the smallest (living room and bedrooms) to the largest area, by integrating the entire garden in high summer.