Nurturing Nature: Exploring the Enchanting Gardeners House by Cabinet Fanny Noël Diogo Lopes Architectes

The project is designed in collaboration with the forest of “Belle Idee,” which has been partially cleared to make way for agricultural fields and collective housing. The initial concept was to create a “Clearing” surrounded by a series of trees, extending the presence of the forest while enhancing the wildlife and flora of the area. The volume serves as a complement to the vegetation circle with its curved facade, which incorporates a fountain evoking a Nympheum. It provides a new shaded leisure space for the residents. This concept is further reinforced by the presence of a lantern on the roof, which appeals to passers-by and accentuates the figurative quality of the volume. The scale and composition of the façades suggest that it is the last house in the residential neighbourhood. Its uniqueness lies in the inversion of the conventional construction order. A delicate folded wooden facade, coated in blue stain, extends the sky down to the base of the clearing and is complemented by a more robust series of terracotta brick walls on the inside. A beam structure, resembling a pergola, filters the zenithal light that illuminates the workshop spaces.