Bioclimatic house in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie by Alter Smith

Nantes-based architecture practice Alter Smith has completed a bioclimatic house in the seaside resort of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, in the Vendée. The project, which took six months to build, follows on from the practice's earlier residential work.

The timber house makes the most of the footprint permitted by the local planning rules, and gives its owners a 19 m² winter garden set between the main volume and the summer terrace. Clad in Douglas fir, the house is extended by a translucent cladding that reveals the timber frame.

The building envelope (frame, roof structure, joinery and cladding) was built by the contractor LCA Construction bois for €106,063.

Architect Sylvain Gaste explains: “This single-family house stands on a backland plot in a suburban area of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. It is built entirely in timber (timber-frame walls, roof structure, floors, cladding). The clients' aim was to make the most of what the planning rules allow. Simple in form, on two storeys, and set in the middle of the plot to leave room for a garden and keep it at a distance from the neighbours, the 136 m² house also contains a two-storey winter garden, which extends the living space and plays a bioclimatic role.”