Location: Montpellier, South of France

Completion date: February 2018

Surface area: 2200 sq.ft.

Photo credit: Ivan Mathie

Press Distribution: v2com

This is a look at the house from the vantage of the backyard pool. Here you can see the brick wall of the house that has an arched entryway and a couple of tall windows.

The lovely brick section of the house is adroned with green frames to its door and windows to match the lush green landscape of the backyard with tall trees and a grass lawn.

Here is a look at the gorgeous and mature tall tree at the back. It gives a nice contrast to the red brick exterior wall. Beside it is a walkway that leads from the house to the pool.

This nighttime look of the house shows its warm yellow glow that comes from the interior lighting. This pairs well with the brick exterior and the stone mosaic walkway.

The interior has a bright white aesthetic with white walls, flooring tiles and the white ceiling that has a skylight.

This is a look at the spacious area beside the kitchen that can be fitted with an informal dining area with a pendant light perfect for a small round table by the tall windows.

This angle shows more of the brilliant skylight of the white ceiling. This brings an abundance of natural lighting to the kitchen island that has a contrasting black countertop.

This angle look from the vantage of the kitchen island reveals the simple yet lovely living room beside it.

The lovely living room is dominated by a large L-shaped sectional brown sofa that stands out against the consistent white walls, ceiling and flooring tiles.

Across from the sofa is this large wooden structure that has built-in shelves and also houses the TV and the fireplace.

This is the second-floor hallway with a dark hardwood flooring contrasted by the bright white walls and ceiling. Here you can see that the doors of the room blend well with the white walls.

Minimalist dining room with turquoise accents

This is the bedroom of the house with a bed that stands out against the white walls and ceiling because of its blue sheets. This is surrounded by bright windows with light gray frames. A few steps from it is the lovely closet area with white cabinets.

The primary bathroom has a lovely pastel tone to its walls serving as an accent to the white hues to blend with the white freestanding bathtub and sink.

The house, with its large north-facing garden, had very little natural light and the living space on the ground floor was segmented into too many sections with low ceilings. Load-bearing walls and partitions have been removed in order to create a homogeneous and airy place.

The new choreographed sequence of the spaces results from the regular structural grid made of load-bearing rectangular beams. Thus, this structural frame minimizes the distribution spaces and comprises the entrance, dining, and living room in only one central area. It is connected to the extension of the house that accommodates an open kitchen and reads as a large brick cube that stretches out onto the garden for a constant relation between both the inside and the outside.

Taking advantage of generous and dramatic ceiling height, a wrap-around roof light in the kitchen block enhances the feeling of a connection to the green outdoor environment. Bathed in natural light that penetrates through the skylight, the kitchen creates the impression of an overall unified living experience blurring lines between the inside and out.

The set of arched windows frames all views from the kitchen to the garden courtyard; the softness of the rounded shapes reflects the original house’s sculptural form and character; deliberately merging the new and the old in this project.

The additional space consists of red terracotta bricks. This colorful graphic language interspersed with contrasting glazed bricks, varying depths, produces a vivid and playful pattern of light and shadow on the facades.

The extension volume is strictly minimalist but changing. The colorimetric composition of terracotta red mixes with the green shades of the pool and garden. The reference hue RAL 5021 chosen for external joinery composed of aluminum-clad evokes this color palette. A bright and daring color which boldly contrasts with the raw-aesthetic design of volumes and surfaces and stands out even more against the immaculate white decor of the interior making the most of natural light.

Custom-designed furniture fills the space between the supporting grid of concrete columns and includes what is required to support daily life: multi-purpose built-in storage that can be used as a toy-box, a customizable work area, a display shelving unit, a fireplace, a wine cellar, and an entrance wardrobe.

The pool, an obvious choice, offers a constant flow from indoors to the vibrant outdoors. The cohesive use of color and material for the floor infuses in the house a natural continuity creating abstraction.

About (ma!ca) architecture

(ma!ca) is an architectural firm based in the south of France that adapts its methodology to the unique requirements of each project. Always building a strong identity. The explorative practice is guided by a commitment to push creative boundaries and pay meticulous attention to every detail in a sensitive manner.

The name (ma!ca) is inspired by a plant with therapeutic virtues/as for (ma!ca), architecture plays a key role in human health and has a significant effect on physical and emotional well-being.

The architecture “takes care” and improves the well-being through the use of materials, colors, light, highest craftsmanship, and as a result, made-to-measure spaces.

Maya Brudieux has lived in Rotterdam and Saint-Jean du-Gard and Camille Morcrette in Montreal and Marseille. Their work is tinted of modernity and is aiming to find a subtile balance between radicalness and surrealism.