UPCOMING ARCHITECTS AWARD

Located in the wooded residential area of Anglet, on the Basque coast, this prefabricated house was built on a former agricultural land with a sloping ground. Its light and slender wooden structure rises on stilts in order to have a minimal impact on the environment and to orientate the different living spaces to the south.
For this 130 square metres project, completed in two months (excluding foundation blocks), the study phase was essential. Beltza Architecture worked closely with various companies for eight months to ensure that each solution delivered was ready for installation. SOLEAL windows and sliders were manufactured made to measure, in the workshop and installed by the metal builder, Labastere 64.

The house is designed to live in/out, in tune with the mild seasons of the region, and encourages a close relationship with nature. While the north façade has seven SOLEAL tilt and turn windows, the south façade is generously opened by SOLEAL sliding windows that disappear into the partitions: at an angle over 4 m wide for the living room, 4 m wide respectively for the living room and the bedroom.
These spaces overlook the surrounding canopy, extend onto wooden terraces and vanish into nets that are ideal for relaxation. They also benefit from maximum solar gains in winter, controlled in summer thanks to the thermal performance of the joinery combined with the wooden roof. Owners are lowly heating when it is cold and they ventilate naturally when the sun comes out.

The slender, grained brown TECHNAL aluminium profiles merge with the black steel posts of the corridors/terraces. A set of vertical bands, which creates a rhythm between the local larch clinkers.

The house is modular, designed as a succession of studios that can be autonomous by the individualised access in the north corridor and a pivot door system on the corridor. The interior core is made of solid wood panels retaining warm tones.