We all want more for less. Every client I’ve worked with believed they could build below the average market price per square meter. Almost none of them did, and not because my estimates were wrong. They were off because clients estimate as if they will outperform the market, then make choices that land them above it. In this issue I look at a house that famously did outperform the market, the philosophy that made it possible, and why that philosophy is so hard to reproduce in ordinary practice, including mine.
Enjoy,
The Sketch: The house that did more with less
Latapie House by Lacaton & Vassal.
The Thought: “Always add”
Quantity vs Quality.The Work: Paving the road to hell
What’s standing between intention and application.
This sunday’s live session will again be at 21:30 C.E.S.T.
Hope you can join me,
1. The Sketch
The house that did more with less
The Maison Latapie was designed by Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal from 1991 to 1993 in Floirac-Bordeaux, France. I’m highlighting the fact that it was incredibly cheap to build as its main characteristic, but this is an oversimplification. The story is not: “they used cheap industrial materials, end.” The story lies in the thinking behind the use of these materials.
The architects thought about the house the way buildings were conceived in medieval times. During those times people would occupy more spaces inside the building during the warmer periods, but would come together in fewer spaces during the cooler periods to preserve heat. This enabled building occupants to be strategic with the spaces they would heat up. It’s as if the buildings expanded and contracted with the seasons.
Which brings us to the Latapie house and the strategy behind it. It is also meant to expand integrating the garden through the greenhouse throughout the warmer months and it contracts during the winter.
The climate in this region is a relatively warm one, meaning the main strategy when building here is solar protection in order to avoid overheating. Ventilation is also important because it’s quite humid. There’s also a strong potential for solar gains to consider for offsetting energy consumption during the cooler period.
The space inside the greenhouse showing the canopy as a shading element.
This is why the house responds so well to the setting. Everything about this climate points to the need for operable elements that change a house’s predisposition towards the climate.
But operable elements such as shutters and parasols tend to be considered as “nice add-ons” which more often than not end up being scrapped when budgets are tight. In this house however, the cladding that makes up the main façade is also the element that makes up the shutter. Meaning the shutters were an integral part of the design itself, not an add-on.
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