Portfolio Categories : Adobe House
Attic
A t t i c
Mangarivotra . Madagascar . 2021
Client Association Tantsaha Mizara
Status Ongoing
This restoration project is located on the slopes of the village Mangarivotra. It is the architectural stage of a large Eco hamlet project.
This is the transformation of a private house into a community attic. 13 hectares of agricultural land surrounding the building are made available to 8 Malagasy farmer families who work and plow each of the allocated plots (in a food self-sufficiency program and permaculture scheme). They plant beans, Moringa oleifera, corn, cassava and at the same time they develop an edible and medicinal forest with the aim of promoting Malagasy traditional knowledge.
The restored 192m2 house is the agricultural activity headquarter :
– community granary where they store the harvests seeds.
– processing workshop and stockage (perfume, aromatic and medicinal plants, Essential Oils, baths, dryers, etc.).
– farmers community meetings.
– reception for volunteers in training.
The restoration consists of reviewing the layout of the rooms, enlarging the eastern facade thanks to a raised terrace on a series of load-bearing posts (major element of traditional local architecture) and protecting it from bad weather by a curtain of Vienna straw, basketry unmissable in the Malagasy landscape. Lime plaster, local wood, thatch roofing and rainwater harvesting are some of the techniques used.
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Villavo
V i l l a v o
Angavo . Madagascar . 2018
Client Private
Status Ongoing
This large private house is located on a plot of land overlooking the town of Andrefanangavo, in the heart of the Hauts Plateaux of Madagascar.The view is magnificient and the orientation is ideal. Naturally, the rectangular volume extends over its entire side in order to take advantage of the panorama. It is made up of two accommodation units (the larger one is for the client couple when the second one for the guests), both joined by a common terrace.
The two ends of the villa are volumetrically identical : two rectangular blocks from which a gallery unfolds. This covered gallery uses the construction system of load-bearing posts, a major traditional Malagasy architecture element, thus protecting from the zenithal sun. Other traditional elements are taken up in the structure of the villa as the mud bricks for the walls and the terracotta tiles which cover the large sloping roof.
An invisible gutter system is installed at the intersection of the long bean of the gallery and the roof, in order to facilitate the rainwater harvesting from torrential rains in the wet season. The landscaping is inspired by the surrounding rice fields and an irrigation system is designed to take care of the different trees planted by the nurserywoman, horticulturist and client of the project : coffees, mangos, guavas …
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Red Shack
R e d S h a c k
Ampefy . Madagascar . 2017
Client Private
Status Completed
This 60m2 pavilion was built using the local construction technique that is specifically found in the Hauts Plateaux region of central Madagascar : coated brick walls, large thatched roof and natural hard soil. The major challenge was to respect the use of local resources, from the boots to the hat of the house :
– The soil, lay on a granite base stones, is composed of clay mixed with hydraulic lime, tamped, pigmented and then smoothed.
– The bricks of the curved walls were shaped by hands and assembled together using clay mortar.
– The coating is an amalgam of sand and laterite. A second coat (a lightly tinted lime wash) is applied as a final plastering and is drawing a geometric wall pattern.
– The framework was shaped with local wood supplied by the client and rests on two interior load-bearing walls, dividing spaces between water, day and night rooms. The thatch was dried in-situ and laid by the village craftsmen.
The pavilion, beyond its thermal comfort, meets the constraints that a site such as this one may encounter: materials, climate, construction times. Thus, the constraints, when they are admitted, become a constructive force and embrace the construction, which makes this project a delightful eco construction manifesto.
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Papango
P a p a n g o
Ampefy . Madagascar . 2018
Client Private
Status Ongoing
Papango is part of an ambitious project of three private constructions, a triptych of modern villas leaning against a hill and overlooking the Itasy lake : Mitsiky, Akanin’ny and Papango, aka Ampefy’s Nests.
The villas enjoy in a natural environment which determines each architectural concept, but with the same term : homogeneous use of local materials (enhancement of mud bricks, clay plaster, local wood). We are on a wide sloping area which runs down to the shores of the lake and where the owners have already planted hundreds of trees. We have to imagine them in a few years, mango trees or mantalys, covering all the site. As bird nests, the villas nestle high up. They arise between topographic curves.
Papango consists of two elements :
– a central volume which welcomes the principal day rooms.
– two lateral blocks where the 4 night rooms evolve.
A terrace unfolds on the north facade. The kings of this place are Circus Macrosceles: a typical harrier hovering in the Itasy, ‘Papango’ in Malagasy tongue.
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Mitsiky
M i t s i k y
Ampefy . Madagascar . 2018
Client Private
Status Ongoing
Mitsiky is part of an ambitious project of three private constructions, a triptych of modern villas leaning against a hill and overlooking the Itasy lake : Mitsiky, Akanin’ny and Papango, aka Ampefy’s Nests.
The villas enjoy in a natural environment which determines each architectural concept, but with the same term : homogeneous use of local materials (enhancement of mud bricks, clay plaster, local wood). We are on a wide sloping area which runs down to the shores of the lake and where the owners have already planted hundreds of trees. We have to imagine them in a few years, mango trees or mantalys, covering all the site. As bird nests, the villas nestle high up. They arise between topographic curves.
Mitsiky consists of two elements :
– a 25 linear meter facade which welcomes the day rooms and the bedrooms.
– a volume at the back of the house where the entrance, kitchen, pantry and laundry rooms evolve.
A terrace unfolds on the north facade. From there, the view is magnificent: two peninsulas are linked together by a sand beach, we can read the shape of a smile, the meaning of ‘Mitsiky’ in Malagasy tongue.
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Akanin’ny
A k a n i n’n y
Ampefy . Madagascar . 2018
Client Private
Status Ongoing
Akanin’ny is part of an ambitious project of three private constructions, a triptych of modern villas leaning against a hill and overlooking the Itasy lake : Mitsiky, Akanin’ny and Papango, aka Ampefy’s Nests.
The villas enjoy in a natural environment which determines each architectural concept, but with the same term : homogeneous use of local materials (enhancement of mud bricks, clay plaster, local wood). We are on a wide sloping area which runs down to the shores of the lake and where the owners have already planted hundreds of trees. We have to imagine them in a few years, mango trees or mantalys, covering all the site. As bird nests, the villas nestle high up. They arise between topographic curves.
Akanin’ny consists of two elements :
– a central dome which welcomes the room and the living.
– two lateral domes where the kitchen and the bathroom evolve.
A terrace unfolds on the north facade. We are at the highest point of the site, it’s the eagle’s nest, ‘Akanin’ny’ in Malagasy tongue.
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Biriky
B i r i k y
Tana . Madagascar . 2009
Client Private
Status Completed
James Cameron was a missionary who lived in Madagascar in 1826. He is also the man which introduced mud bricks technique in the island. The clay was moisturized, then molded, tamped and dried in the sun. These adobe bricks (Biriki tanimanga) are a more efficient construction technique than the ancestral cob (Tovam-peta). But mud bricks suffered of a poor resistance to the compression.
Five years later, in 1831, Jean Laborde (consul of France and french manufacturer) imported the cooked bricks technique on the island. This architectural revolution, mainly used for prestigious buildings and for a ‘bourgeois’ society, was quickly spread from urban to rural areas, since it perfectly compensated for the shortcomings of mud bricks. We find cooked bricks in the main architectural elements (walls, lintels, columns, frames…) of every large red houses of Antananarivo, houses which are so characteristic of the Malagasy landscape. Here is one more.
With its dominant position on land overlooking the rice fields, this house has all the characteristics of a Malagasy ‘bourgeois’ house. Main facade’s bricks posts, balcony, brickwork, balusters, Victorian Trims and carved wood porch bracket are the traditional elements that the client wanted to keep.
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Villa Esc
V i l l a E s c
Périgord . France . 2012
Client Private
Status Project
On a hillside and overlooking a wooded landscape, a ribbon of red bricks curls into the slope.
The project was inspired by the troglodyte dwellings of the Perigord Noir, consisting of a camouflaged entrance and walls built against the rock. The concept is based on the principle of excavation and it is articulated around a 180 ° panoramic view.
Such as the mouth of a cave, an extrusion leads us to the entrance, an excavated patio. Upstairs are the guest rooms, the kitchen, dining and living room. These spaces communicate with each other either inside (a library/gallery) or outside (a corridor which ends on the patio). The top floor welcomes the master bedroom and the atelier. The inside house treatment lies in the materials, in their most primitive aspect with a general pattern of clay bricks.
The passive house is designed according to the principles of bioclimatic construction to provide comfort and energy independence for the clients.
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