The Pavilion House in Provence at dusk: a wide, flat dark roof over glass walls and limestone blocks, with a timber terrace opening onto a lawn, olive trees and rocky hills behind.

Pavilion House

No.
2
Provence, France
2023

Location

Provence, France

Year

2023

Area

310 m²

Status

Completed

Type

Residential

Architecture

Hartwell & Kessler

Interiors

Hartwell & Kessler

Structural engineer

Atelier Roux Ingénierie

Landscape

Jardins Lefèvre

Photography

Thomas Girard

The site

A flat, walled garden of old olive trees at the edge of a village, with the hills rising behind it. The clients asked for a house that would feel like part of the garden, and for every olive tree to stay where it was.

The house

We answered with one wide steel roof resting on two limestone blocks: one holds the bedrooms, the other the kitchen. Everything between them is glass, open to the olive trees on both sides. Pale limestone floors run up to the glass, and a timber terrace carries them on into the garden, so in good weather it is hard to say where the house ends.

Materials & construction

The roof is a thin steel plate on slender steel columns, with the limestone blocks taking the rest of the load. Its depth was calculated for this latitude: it reaches far enough beyond the walls to shade the glass in summer and let the low winter sun deep into the rooms. The glass walls slide fully open. A ground-source heat pump warms the floors in winter, and the limestone blocks, built from local stone, keep the bedrooms cool through the hottest months.

Floor plan

Bathroom in the Pavilion House with honed limestone walls and a glass wall opening onto a walled garden.
Open living space in the Pavilion House with glass walls on both sides looking out to olive trees and lavender.
Contemporary kitchen with dark wood cabinetry, a pale stone island and warm linear lighting, overlooking olive trees at dusk.
Bedroom with walnut wall panelling, an upholstered bed and curved bench, with full-height windows overlooking olive trees.
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