A Seaside House: "Redefining the openness to the outside"

Rooted in the seaside and surrounded by a beautiful garden north of “Île de Ré” in France, this house designed by Martins | Afonso atelier de design opens up on every side and multiply perspectives. With a strong background, the challenge of the renovation was to create a new living environment, based on the previous one, and bring it a warm atmosphere.

The owners wished to renovate the house in order to make it more adapted to their lifestyle, more comfortable and above all in accordance to their tastes. The renovation is based on a reflection of the inside and a redefinition of the openings to the outside. Interior accommodations have been carefully thought in order to create new links between rooms, but also to establish new relations with the outside.

It is about realizing sequencing work defined and highlighted by the execution of solid wood. This material established a common denominator within each room of the house.
The central area is here to connect two living rooms and a dining room/kitchen, through a solid oak strip, in which we can find the doors and storage units. This central space also helps creating the sequences and framings, which highlight the exterior context while succeeding to bring it indoor.

Many details can be found in these spaces, whether it is by the choice of materials such as terracotta, or by the minute work on the solid oak, such as the making of hidden doors, and all the shadow gaps allowing for a finer dialogue with the existing space.

Everything was conceived in details so that each architectural element finds its way and where each sequencing and framing is both highlighting what previously existed and also gives it the stamp of united togetherness.

*credits