Introduction

It is a house where the technology meets the architecture to create a universe at

the same time simple and complex. The house in Bordeaux has been designed for a
family of parents and three children, but with a purpose.
The client, Jean Francois Lemoine, was paralyzed as a result of an automobile
accident and wanted a home that could meet their own needs and at the same time
it was a home for the whole family: a solution that combines two parallel lives.
The building should not be a house for a disabled person, quite a diverse and
amazing universe, a creative scenario in which developed most of his days.
Situation
The property is located in Floirac on a hill 5 km from Bordeaux, France. It is
surrounded by an English-style park, get a 180 city and the river. This is a prime
area where buildings can not exceed 9 meters above ground level and can not have
bright colors that make them visible from the valley of Bordeaux.
Concept
This is a practical project, designed to solve more than adequately functional,
physical and psychological requirements of the owner that travels in a wheelchair
and his family, creating three different worlds, one on each floor, connected by a
common shaft, a lift.
The architect proposed a house, or actually three houses, one over the other. In it
the owner would have their own space, or rather station: the lifting platform.
The motion of the elevator continuously changes the architecture of the house. A
machine is its heart.
Like the Kunsthal and home in Holten, Balmond collaboration with Koolhaas set
allows structural elements based on their own metaphorical figures, so in this
project are the challenges of a difficult synthesis between these figures, the
program and structure, which are unified in a system that no longer have the
degree of freedom allowed by the university, Tektonik or Cadavre Exquis.
The building is composed of three houses superimposed over each other: three
floors of a completely different nature and clear visual contrast.
the lower ground floor is dug into the rocky hillside and is available in several caves,
the plant is in the midst of glass and transparent, and the top floor is divided into
several rooms.
Description
The plant is located below literally dug into the hillside and is home to the most
intimate part of domestic life, the kitchen and a basement, while the top floor is
divided into two parts dealing respectively with the couple and children.
The plant is the main central striking: the area devoted to day, is open to all sides
and limited only by glass walls that exclude the interior creating a close relationship
with the garden, the immateriality of the central causes the cement floor and is
suspended, levitating in the air. The ground floor, despite being partially
underground, not the idea of closing the internal courtyard opens like a passable
from which you access the main entrance in the heart of the house, where vertical
connections are located.
The various levels are crossed by an ingenious platform that moves vertically
through a piston: not just a lift, but a real room designed as a studio for the owner,
which lets you go from the kitchen to the living room, andalusia bedroom, without
moving from the desktop. The walls surrounding the platform are equipped with
libraries, so that Mr. Lemoine can easily reach their books going up or down in his
study.
The plant invests night philosophy applied to the room, internalizing the
environments that look to the outside only by ox eyes cut in cement and carefully
placed to offer the best Escorza on the scene that surrounds it.
Structurally the plant is only supported by the porch and placed below a beam that
is based on the coated stainless steel cylinder that holds the ladder.
Spaces
The building is composed of three superimposed one over the other houses: three
floors of completely different nature and clear visual contrast from the kitchen to
the bedrooms and suggest laminating traditional functions but actually determine
different living conditions. The lowest floor is carved into the rocky slopes and is
available in several caves; plant medium is glass and transparent and the top floor
is divided into several rooms. The 3 levels are divided into two vertical sections to
obtain two separate units on the upper level, each with its own vertical access and
bathrooms, one for parents and one for children.

Section
.
First level

The quadrangular lower floor literally has been excavated on the hill and consists of
a basement, with a glass wall overlooking the courtyard. Each of its rooms is dug
into the ground independently, the main entrance, kitchen, laundry room, wine
cellar, TV room and service area.
At this level there are two dwelling units separated by a single small patio
overlooking the main courtyard floor. A room with guest bathroom and a bedroom
with bathroom, kitchen and dining room for guard. Simple proportion principles
governing the overall size of the parties.

To move to the next levels has placed an elevator and a staircase. The staircase
leads to the terrace on the ground floor.

Second level

The central floor is the one that attracts most attention: dedicated to the living area
is open to all sides and limited only by glass walls that exclude the interior creating
a close relationship with the garden. At this level, in addition to the living room,
located the dining room, terrace, study and elevator
The immateriality of the central space makes higher cement plant remain as
suspended, levitating in the air. The ground floor, even being partly underground, it
gives the idea of closure within, opens as a walkable courtyard from which you
access the main entrance in the heart of the house, where are also located the
vertical connections.
A sliding glass wall opens the living room to the terrace, while their position
protects. All the light that pervades the room contrasts with its rustic concrete roof,
which determines overwhelmingly space.

Third level
 Third level

The highest floor is divided into two, dealing respectively with the couple and
section of children. It is a protective concrete box several interrelated spaces, some
of which open to the sky. The parents bedroom opens to the landscape in the open
eastern end of the box and the bedrooms of children entering the landscape from
certain points of the rooms, the bed, the bathroom or the desktop, and through
small portholes, tapered and oblique located at specific heights.
The plant invests night philosophy applied to living, internalizing environments that
look to the outside only by portholes cut into the cement and carefully located to
offer the best glimpses of the surrounding panorama.
Access to the unity of the children is via a spiral staircase, to the parent via a
staircase ramp and a hydraulic platform 33.5m. Another staircase, located in the
center between the two units, connecting the first and second level. The undulating
forms of its walls reflect the passage of a cave shadow the discovery of light and
views. This variety of connections developed to promote independence among units
of parents and children is a distinctive design and applied by OMA in other projects.
Elevator
The various levels are traversed by an ingenious platform that moves vertically by a
piston hydraulic, is not a simple lift, but a real room without walls designed as an
office for your business, which allows you to go from kitchen to living room or
bedroom, without leaving your desk. The walls surrounding the platform are
equipped with libraries, so that Mr. Lemoine can easily achieve their going up or
down in his study books.
The lift is the key space of the house opens to all its inhabitants, go or no in
wheelchair. In the basement, the elevator opens to the cellar and part of the
kitchen. On the ground floor, overlooking the living room on the top level becomes
an alcove off the main bedroom.
Structure
Preliminary studies
Some early drawings show a square plan prism supported on stilts, as in Villa
Savoye. Two basic solutions were studied, one based on the tectonic stacking of
different layers, as in Villa dallAva or Holten, the other with the presence of a long
ramp that rests on the ground properly prepared, carved outtalus, both designed
for easy movement with a wheelchair. The development of the ramp, in some
studies connects all levels of the house, makes the project evolves towards a
system of bent slabs, similar to that used in [ Educatorium|Educatorium]]. In other
studies the foundations of the box are formed by a wavy, similar to that used in the
draft Convention Center for Agadir entered into the competition by Koolhaas in
1990. The gap between this element and the base inserted in the soil is defined as
in-between/entre deus. This leads to the choice of the outline of a horizontal to
vertical organization, in which a mobile platform replaces the ramp, allowing the
creation of three layers, as in House DallAva.
In the versions that are close to the final design, the underground part of the house
is called Invisible Socle, while the box suspended or resting on used the words
Floating Bunker or Bunker Bunkers. The final design is also called Courtyard
House, stressing the importance of the large patio facing the villa and the annex
for home and guests.
Final structure

The area has been divided into three bands, the largest is a patio and the other two
are on the first level of the house.
The band for the first level of the house is completely open to the courtyard through
panels of transparent and opaque glass. A row of cylindrical pillars metal and
painted black serve to support the structure of the slab is up and running along the
glazing. On the side of this band and into the floor, the wall has recesses and
protrusions, creating terraces with wedges and cavities that seem natural.

Structurally the plant cantilever is only supported by one of its ends by steel frame
downstream and a beam that rests on the outer concrete wall and cylinder coated
stainless steel enclosing the staircase on the other. This is a strange pillar with
respect to the cantilever beam, so it is balanced by an anchored strap enters the
yard.
Pillars
Unless two profiles of steel in the basement, do not exist in this building anything
that can be called true pillar, any load-bearing walls. Usually buildings have solid
bases and tops lighter. In this house, the opposite happens, the huge concrete box
rests on an open space, apparently without major support and glass walls. Usually
the beams holding loads from below, in this project a huge steel beam, almost a
story high, rests on the building like anything but an indispensable member of the
structure and so on with all elements or details of the construction, as if it were a
game manual.
Empty and full, introverted and extroverted, both animate the facades and interiors
with the desired asymmetry, and are made possible by ingenious functional and
structural solutions.
Materials
The combinations of materials recurring stress dualism: the cement is in contrast to
the glass and aluminum mixed with steel, creating a fascinating structural
ambiguity.
Empty and filled, the introverted and extroverted, encourage both the facades and
interiors along with the search asymmetry, and are made possible thanks to
ingenious structural and functional solutions. Cement seen, painted gray in living
room ceilings, reflective chrome coating on the staircase to the terrace through to
give it a disembodied appearance.
In the kitchen, channeling the physical plant and lighting hanging from the top slab
and hidden with an inclined transparent polycarbonate panels, inserting the
solutions used for public buildings by OMA in a residential roof situation.