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Project Name: 18.11 MONT (Winter garden for a mason’s house.)
Architecture Firm: SAPIENS ARCHITECTES
Contact e-mail: contact@sapiens.archi
Firm Location: Paris, France et Montpellier, France.

Completion Year: 2018
Gross Built Area: 17m2
Project location: Montolieu (11), France

Lead Architects: Baptiste Manet et Yann Legouis
Lead Architects e-mail: contact@sapiens.archi

Photo credits: Atmospheriques narratives. Cyrille Weiner and Giaime Meloni
Photographer’s e-mail: atmospheriquesnarratives@gmail.com

The commission was to create a terrace and a winter garden for a house without great formal quality, but with a beautiful sloping garden overlooking a river.

The project consisted of creating a terrace, partially covered by a low-pitched roof in natural zinc, and enclosed by aluminum joinery on the central part in connection with the kitchen, in order to create a 15 m2 winter garden entirely glazed on the periphery, adjoining the existing construction.

This winter garden symmetrically defines two terraces, north and south, which are connected by a protected passageway under the roof overhang of the conservatory. The topographical configuration of the plot, which slopes steeply down to the stream, also allows for a shaded and qualitatively good area, at the level of the garden and cellars, under the surface of the terrace.

This symmetrical writing of the structure projected onto the garden facade gives it a new. The south-facing roof overhang discreetly announces the contemporary extension from the main access and allows the terrace system to be rotated.

The recessed posts and the zinc roof, overhanging and refined on the edge, accentuate the horizontality of the extension and soften the verticality of the existing house, while assuming a resolutely contemporary style. The railings accentuate this horizontal effect so that they can be integrated into the garden with lightness. The reflective underside of the terrace makes it possible to optically enlarge the garden, and to make it fit into the extensions.