Description
Marc Barani’s monumental house in the hills of the Côte d’Azur has a design line that is minimized in a very unusual way. Large horizontal slabs are staggered one above the other, following the hilly terrain. Like platforms, they identify completely level areas as inside and outside spaces without transitions, terraces and roofs. This motif is all the more impressive because Barani does not add any constructive elements or articulations, but allows this design-dominating element to float, abstract and above all column-free, and protruding to an enormous extent in places. The villa is divided up into three volumes, thus rendering function areas distinctly discernible from an outside perspective: three areas that are very clearly distinct as building sections are grouped around an access courtyard. In the middle is the living room in a prominent position with a large adjacent terrace area, and an essentially closed playroom on the courtyard side; then a flanking video/cinema room with ancillary rooms; and opposite the kitchen with children’s play area and a servants’ zone.
There is direct access from the main entrance to the upper floor via a staircase, where a line of bedrooms with balconies in front is placed. This bridges a dip in the terrain, containing a swimming pool facing the view. The really special thing about the design is undoubtedly the highly flexible disposition of the living space: the floor-to-ceiling glass walls on the side open to the spectacular view can be retracted into the floor, changing interior living into open-air life on a terrace. The dream of barrier-free living in a natural space, while still protected from the elements, can seldom have been better realized. Living room, terrace, swimming pool and sea flow together in an area that seems to extend infinitely to the horizon.
Drawings
Site plan
Axonometric diagram with the ´roof slab´ of the living area
Ground floor with main entrance and division into three areas: on the left cinema room, dressing rooms and bathroom, in the middle living area and playroom, on the right kitchen, children’s playroom and servants’ area
Second floor with bedrooms and bathrooms, loggias and balconies
Cross section through the living room with view of the bedroom
Photos
Exterior view of the bedroom area on the left, pool and living area behind
Interior view of the living area with terrace
Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.