House V.W., Yport

This small forest lodge is perched atop a cliff overlooking the vast landscape of Étretat, overlooking the village of Yport in Normandy. Dilapidated, it was completely gutted in order to study in detail all the ways to gain square metres here and there.

First, the technical equipment – hot water tank, pump, electricity meter, garden shed – was removed from the house and housed in a gallery dug into the hillside, which is not subject to regulations. To make it possible to convert the attic, the level of the upper floor was lowered by one metre.

A thin, technical concrete slab was installed, allowing for an extra floor to be added. Next came the construction of a volume at the rear of the house for the wet rooms: kitchen on the ground floor, bathroom upstairs. In accordance with the mayor's wishes, this extension is invisible from the village below. Everything was designed with environmental protection in mind: wood heating, plant fibres for partitions and insulation, natural ventilation. The project meets High Environmental Quality requirements, particularly with regard to rainwater recovery, the use of solar (hybrid system) and geothermal energy, and the reduction of raw materials through the optimisation of structural efforts.