100% wooden house France, Montlouis-sur-Loire building, Château de la Bourdaisière, Architect

100% wooden house, Montlouis-sur-Loire

post updated 25 March 2024

Design: LOCAL and Suphasidh Studio

Location: Château de la Bourdaisière, Montlouis-sur-Loire, France

100% WOODEN HOUSE

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire

Photos by Atelier Vincent Hecht

29 Oct 2020

100% wooden house in Montlouis-sur-Loire

LOCAL and Suphasidh Studio build a prototype of a 100% wooden house in the park of the Bourdaisière Castle.

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire

The project questions the flexibility and the usage of wood; it aims to modify the traditional codes of the individual housing. The building is a prototype dwelling, which feeds on research, experiments and discoveries made over time. In a perpetual evolution, the house is part of an educative promenade organized in the park of the Bourdaisière Castle (France).

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire

The design process was based on confronting a search for spatial qualities of the house that would change our idea of a living space and an exploration of wooden construction systems.

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire

By wrapping the programs around a central core, we generated a generous and continuous volume. The interior topography gives a hierarchy to the different usage: standing in the kitchen to face the view; seating on the window height in the living room; a slope as a sofa; the room on the higher level to guarantee its privacy while generating a covered terrace below it. Every volumetric move creates a new opportunity.

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire

The project brings together technical solutions that links the origins of construction to today’s high-tech industry. We formalize the ambition to reconnect the inhabitant with their built environment.

Film on YouTube

Full description of the project

The 100% wooden house result from a call for projects initiated by the Bourdaisière Castle (France) as part of the second edition of the Forest and Wood Festival (2017).

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire building

The stated target was to achieve a house of around 55sqm with a ground floor and a first floor, for 2 people, using only wood.

100% wooden house France, Montlouis-sur-Loire woods

In order to serve these ambitions, the structures put in place are a combination of archaic and high-tech solutions.

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire building interior

The house stands on acacia piles chosen for their water-repellent quality. The chestnut trunks that serves for the columns, are coming directly from the park of the castle.

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire interior design

They remain raw and have been processed with CNC in a workshop before simply being embedded on the piles. The use of CLT in the composition of the facade ensures large openings with a minimum of interruptions, as well as using a structural element as a finished surface for the interior of the dwelling. The raw logs in the smooth interior space recall the natural origin of the material and bring the forest into the house. The floors and the roof are, for their part, made from a more classic wooden frame.

concept diagram:
100% wooden house Château de la Bourdaisière building
image © local + Suphasidh Studio

The entire structure has been modeled beforehand in order to generate the cutting plans which were carried out by digital cutting in the workshop, allowing rapid assembly on site.

logs after processing:
Château de la Bourdaisière logs France forest
photo © local + Suphasidh Studio

Like the columns, the facade also offered the opportunity to explore the capabilities of the short supply chain. The chestnut trunks stored in the park for several years were processed into planks in a sawmill about ten kilometers away from the construction site before being brought back for installation.

unfolded section – concept:
100% wooden house Château de la Bourdaisière building design
image © local + Suphasidh Studio

Without undergoing any treatment, the color of the facade will naturally evolve and get closer to the surrounding tones.

Montlouis-sur-Loire house in France forest sky

Montlouis-sur-Loire House – Building Information

Client: Château de la Bourdaisière – France Bois, Forêt – Caisse des Dépôts
Localisation: Montlouis-sur-Loire, France
Status: 2017 – 2020 competition 1st prize
Category: individuel housing, experimentation pavilion
Surface: 55 sqm

Architects: LOCAL (Matthieu Boustany, Benoist Desfonds) + Peeraya Suphasidh Studio
Site Architect: Isabelle Poulain Architecte
Contractor: Boussiquet + Piveteau (CLT) + Pavatex (insulation) + l’André (sawmill)

Photographer: Atelier Vincent Hecht

100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire images / information received 291020 from LOCAL and Suphasidh Studio

Location: Montlouis-sur-Loire, France, western Europe

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