Hourré House, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France by Collectif Encorea
Hourré House
Hourré House resides in Pyrénées-Atlantiques, an area near the borders of France and Spain. Named after the Pyrenees mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, it covers the French Basque Country and the Béarn. Due to both the ocean and the mountains the area is a touristic attraction.
Renovation of Hourré House
The house occupies 220 sq.m. It is a two-storey family residence within a 700 sq.m. surrounding field. “Instead of creating partitions and making expensive openings in those thick walls, we left the spaces as is.” the architect suggests. The initial idea was not to change anything, and the result was notewort.
Walls were once 70 centimeters thick to preserve insulation. In fact, the architect repainted the walls instead of tear them apart and re-build them. In that case, the house maintained the benefits of the thick walls – insulation from cold weather and humidity. “By letting the house invent itself, we discover a daily life that we could not have invented ourselves“.
Architect
Responsible for this wonderful installation is the Collectif Encore architectural and landscape agency. The agency’s headquarters is in Labastide-Villefranche, near where the installation resides. It is an architecture and landscape architecture office, who focuses primarily on houses. “We design projects that take into account all the participants, the richness and diversity they imply (human, environmental, heritage, etc.) and the value of everything that pre-exists the project itself.” they explain. The result is impressive. Enjoy.
