Rapin Saiz Architectes

Description

Built in the 1930s, a time when land on the shores of Lake Geneva was far less valuable than today, the existing house shows great modesty in terms of size, typology and materiality. Current building regulations authorise a slight increase in density, but impose a greater distance from the property edge resulting in a smaller footprint. This justifies the conservation of the existing house and the extension in a smaller area. The project is thus conceived within this very constrained context. The «cleaned» typology of this little house or «maisonette» is composed of three parts of equal length and varying widths, to which we add a fourth, smaller section within the permitted footprint. The added section considerably enhances the relationship to the landscape, offers a canopy on the lower ground floor, a living room on the upper ground floor and a bedroom extension on the first floor. The entire structure is covered by a new regular pitched roof, whose eaves, substantial on the part of the extension are subject to the new expression, giving the house a both strange and familiar appearance. The choice of the materials and their implementation, the expression as a whole, both inside and outside, enhances the house in a somewhat opulent way, upgrading it from its modest origins.