Maison Beauvallon by Raphaëlle Segond

Stairs lead past lumpy cork-covered walls to a rooftop swimming pool at a house in the south of France by architect Raphaëlle Segond.

The pool and a ground floor bedroom occupy one part of the two-storey Maison Beauvallon, while an adjoining concrete block accommodates a living room, kitchen and additional bedrooms.

The open-plan living room covers the majority of the first floor and opens out to the pool and terrace.

Floors throughout the house are of polished concrete.

Other French houses on Dezeen include one with stone screens and another with black-painted bricks and larch window frames - see more projects in France here.

Photography is by Philippe Ruault.

The following text is from the architects:

House in Beauvallon, Var (83), France

The first glimpse at this house is a wall of cork which separates the site in two from a North-South diagonal creating a garden along the street for the entrance and a garden on the side of the valley protected from wind and from the sounds of the street.

In Beauvallon, the slopes are planning to protect both the sights and the period of sunshine.

Actually, houses are arranged in staggered rows leading a way of sight towards mid-day.

Three metres above the highest point on the site, the Mediterranean See is in front of us.

In fact, seeing the sea from the lounge and the swimming pool was an important request of the client in the program of this house.

Thus, at this height, in a forest of oaks and strawberry trees, we dispose the lounge facing the view.

And from the lounge we reach the swimming pool which is struggled between two walls of cork.

Under the lounge, the natural slope of the site was kept in order to hold the next part of the program : five rooms with individual bathrooms and a kitchen-dining room.