Arzach's Strip
Nantes, France 2018
Private house
supervision : Romain Rousseau
& Remy Jacquier (ensa nantes)
The goal of this individual house project is to transpose into architectural language the narrative functioning of comic strips.
The house is a ribbon of raw concrete, folded twice to create 3 levels that function as independent strips. The entrance sequence, the living room sequence and the finale of the parental bedroom follow each other in the overall narrative of the building.
Around this concrete structure, a plain translucent skin provides the enclosing to the internal space while having the most neutral impact possible. This skin is similar to the page of paper on which the ink is printed: necessary to the existence of the story but not narrative. It also delimits what takes place in the diegetic universe and what is external to it (the walkways that circle around it).
The two large pediments and the oversized chimney are like the front and back covers that announce the theme (the individual house) and the characters (the materials) that will animate the story.
SECTION AA'
B
'B
COURTYARD
GROUND FLOOR
FIRST FLOOR
A
'A
'B
A
'A
'B
B
B
KITCHEN
LIVING
NOOK
MASTER
BEDROOM
BATH
BEDROOM
A
SMALL
LIVING
'A
SECOND FLOOR
'B
The built environment is inspired by the precepts of the Franco-Belgian clear line (tintin, spirou etc...). The concrete structure is very detailed by its texture and roughness: steps, hollows and nooks follow each other on the ribbon of the story. In this fixed and complex setting, moving wooden elements with a simple design evolve, like the smooth characters of the Franco-Belgian comics (in blue on the geometric drawings).
Using a system of rails running along all static concrete edges, the wooden seating can be moved throughout the whole house. Both their warm materiality and their minimal form make their mobile function clear. They are the interface between the reader/inhabitant and the house/history and offer a constant re-readability to this architectural narrative.
SECTION BB'
