100% Wooden House was pre-fabricated and built in 1.5 months

The wooden house is the result of a competition launched by Bourdaisiere Castle (France) calling for 600 square foot/55m2 pavilion built entirely of wood that could be pre-fabricated, disassembled and relocated.

Designed as a collaboration between architects Matthieu Boustany and Benoist Desfonds of Local and Peeraya Suphasidh of Suphasidh, the architects sought to question how we use and move around the spaces in our homes and explores typical uses of timber in construction.

The home was designed to wrap around the bathroom, which is the only enclosed room, resulting in a series of interlinked spaces using steps or sloped floor to move upwards towards the rooftop courtyard. The architects describe the interior more akin to ‘interior typography’ with slopes used as lounge areas, steps used as bench seating and the kitchen facing outside, (rather than the norm of the kitchen being the meeting place or hub of the home).

This small footprint dwelling was designed to have minimal impact on the forest and it sits on structural piles made from raw Acacia wood, chosen for it’s water repellent qualities. Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) was used as the structural elements to achieve large uninterrupted slices of window openings, which wrap around most of the building. Connection and integration to the forest was an important aspect of the design and the window openings provide a continuous connection between inside and out.

The facade is made from chestnut trees which had previously been felled at Chateau de la Bourdaisiere and were processed into boards at a local sawmill. Left untreated, the colour of the boards will slowly soften and blend into the surrounding forest.

Proof that budget and time constraints shouldn’t have a negative impact on ingenuity and creative thinking – this exploratory building was constructed in a super quick one and a half months to ensure it was included as an exhibit in the Bourdaisière Castle’s 2019 Forest and Wood Festival and cost only 82,000 Euros. The original budget was 150,000 but was slashed by almost 50%.

Related project: If you like wooden homes take a look at Wooden Studio House by Dom Arquitectura

Sustainability specs:
– 100% wooden house prefabricated
– Cross laminated timber used for structural elements
– Insulated with wood fibre
– Prefabricated off site
– Constructed in one and a half months with a budget of 82,000 Euros
– Flooring made from OSB
– The house footings are made from Acacia piles, chosen for it’s water repellent quality
– Timber joinery
– Timber furniture

The house questions the flexibility and maneuverability of the wood material by manipulating the typology of the individual dwelling. Two thin openings are cut out of a monolithic volume to let in the light and glimpses of the surrounding. The project generates a progressive field of vision onto the forest, as to better integrate itself into the external environment. In the thick shell, a fluid space offers a variety of spatial configurations to reinvent everyday gestures.