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.
See also: more stories about swimming pools in our special feature.
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.
Rooms are consuming more than the half of the living surface.
They are melted in the natural and built landscape, this way all the bedrooms are crossed and passed through.
The continuation is quite simple: concrete, glass, aluminium and rough steel were the only ones materials used in this house.
Concrete is used for the structure and floors, walls were confined in wooden boards and floors were polished.
Doors and cupboards were made of wood then steel and glass were used for the facades between structure elements.
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Client: private
Type of construction: holiday house of 250 m2 with a swimming pool
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Completion: 2011
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Location: Domaine de Beauvallon, Township of Grimaud (83, France)
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Architect: Raphaëlle Segond, workshop located in Marseilles (13, France)
Project Manager : Jonhattan Inzerillo
Concrete & masonry: Paul Ciotta & Fils, maçons
Windows crafters: Maria Aluminium
Electrician: Nicolas Espitalier électricité
