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Architects: Martin Gaufryau, Quentin Barthe, Tom Patenotte
- Area: 9 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Vincent Pelletier-Wassmer
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Lead Architects: Martin Gaufryau, Quentin Barthe, Tom Patenotte
« Le festival de Cabanes » is an international competition, organized since 2016 in the region of the « Sources de Lac d'Annecy » and for the last two years in St. Germain Laval in the Loire department. The competition consists of the design of small cabins on a pre-designated site which is then to be constructed by the design teams themselves. These ephemeral constructions question the relationship we have with our environment and our landscape.
Our project, which won the competition, was allotted site number 15, nestled on the banks of the river Aix at the foot of the small medieval town of St. Germain Laval.
The natural elements contrast with the town and create a special atmosphere, offering a peaceful environment, lulled by birdsong and the sound of the river. Looking up, you glimpse the tops of the trees which bring the sky to life. These three strong elements of the landscape, the river, the forest, and the sky create the boundaries of the project site and will become elements of the project itself.
According to Isozaki Arata, in Japan, the notions of time and space are brought together within the single concept, known as « Ma », which is the natural interval existing between two objects or between two actions, between an object and the object it has replaced or action and the action which follows. This also applies to the empty space and the opening between two elements, for example, the idea of absence which opposes the space within a partition to the space inside a room.
We wanted to create an experience for the visitor, to go beyond the simple functions of shelter and contemplation. We wished to offer another relationship to the sky and to question both privacy and nature.
The cabin becomes one with the trees, challenging the river, all the while preserving the footpath on the bank of the river Aix. It launches upwards, accompanying the verticality of the forest, its stripped-back structure allowing it to blend into its surroundings without the addition of any superfluous material. The volume engages with the strong elements of the site, its lower section opens onto the river, and its upper section onto the sky to reveal the treetops.
A rigorous wooden structure asserts itself from first sight, with different textile fabrics adorning the inner walls of the cabin. The framework marks out the volume and the fabric shows it off.
On the veiled walls, an everchanging projection of reality is seen. A troubling experience that questions our direct relationship with the outside and the relevance of the walls which we have erected between ourselves and the rest.
