La Cabotte / h20 architectes

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Text description provided by the architects. The unique domaine La Cabotte is located on a hillside surrounded by vineyards and woods looking at the Mont Ventoux appearing on the horizon. The domaine is strongly involved in the respectfull terroir farming and wishes to reunite in one same place three functions: a place to welcome visitors with a space dedicated to wine-tasting, an office and washrooms for the wine growers.

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The office decided to take into account two elements to best respond to the above programme : the presence of the landscape and an evocation of the local vernacular architecture.

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The project is based on a star-plan with three branches, each one corresponding to one of the functions listed above. The structure and the wooden envelope include the furniture elements for the wine-tasting space and the office. This gives a real thickness to the walls and recalls the original constructive principles of the “cabotte”.
The unusual plan allows for a central area or core from which the office suggested, thanks to wide openings, a double orientation onto the landscape. These openings frame and dramatize the important elements of the geography (vineyards, Mont Ventoux etc.).

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The pleasure of the palet is thus associated to the surrounding landscape. From the outside, the volume has a traditional double-sloping roof for each branch of the building. There is a contemporary touch in the play between the line of the roof and the line of the wall which don’t always overlap in the same place.

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There is a palpable tension between the volumes and the landscape. The « cabotte » is simply resting there amongst the vines….The addition of “feet” to two of the three volumes corrects the slight slope of the ground.