A timber extension brings house and serenity to a cottage in Brittany

On this modest extension to a semi-detached rural cottage in Brittany, Parisian architects A-platz have opened up the construction to the backyard and reworked the bottom ground right into a beneficiant open-plan house. The architects got down to ‘set up a brand new dialogue between the constructing and its environment’, utilizing the modest timber-framed extension as a manner of exploring the native vernacular structure.

In much less refined arms, the extension, with its easy mono-pitched roof, may have been a banal and jarring addition to the unique stone-walled fisherman’s cottage. As a substitute, it has been detailed and constructed to really feel like an natural extension of the unique that has all the time been there. On the identical time, A-platz has concocted a proper simplicity and inside alterations that might solely belong to the trendy period.

One present factor that needed to be unaltered was the tall gable finish of the home, with its thick, tough stone partitions. The architects describe this wall as a ‘elementary factor of rustic, rural Breton structure’, noting that the adjoining extension doesn’t encroach on it in any manner.

At simply 150 sq m, the undertaking is comparatively small. The brand new extension homes a contemporary kitchen and eating house, together with a utility space and WC, immediately making the room really feel linked to each home and backyard. The location, on the banks of the Rance river, wasn’t nicely served by the orientation of the home, which turned away from the backyard and felt insular and closed off from the panorama.

The shoppers had already opened up a brand new window on the gable finish however A-platz has gone a lot additional, with a big connecting opening inserted into the thick authentic partitions, supported by a slender column.

The house is unified by a poured ground that runs all through the house, with the unique beams of the previous home and the timber ceilings of the extension indicating the place previous ends and new begins. The brink can be accentuated by the uncovered concrete of the beam and column.

The architects additionally stripped the partitions again to the unique stone, making use of a lime-hemp render inside and outside to assist the construction breathe and improve the pure feeling of heat. Along with restoring the home’s authentic boat-building impressed joinery.

Key new timber parts have been launched, the library, the winding staircase and the timber extension itself with its wood-clad ceiling and kitchen items. The general impact respects the native vernacular and scale while additionally opening up the perform and social construction of the home.

A small structure studio, A-platz was arrange in 2021. The workplace has labored in France and Romania on initiatives starting from non-public dwellings to scholar housing and places of work.

a-platz.com, @a_platz_architects