House - Hécourt House / Studio Guma
Architects: Studio Guma
Area: 240 m²Year: 2023
Photographs: Maxime Delvaux
Manufacturers: Focus
Lead Architect: Emmanuel Guilloux
The existing structures are composed of a long farmhouse and two small outbuildings. Their walls and millstone facades evoke the rural history of this location. The roofs covered by red flat tiles, the zinc gutters, and the wooden lintels above the opening create a warm and authentic atmosphere. The build volumes follow a gentle slope down to the entrance path, blending with the surrounding vegetation, which includes beech trees, walnut trees, shrubs, hedges, rows of thuja, fruit trees, and a sprawling lawn. The ambition of the project was to give a second life to these former agricultural spaces. We wanted to preserve their material and spatial qualities, together with the sequential organization of the spaces.
The common spaces are divided into two sections. The kitchen-dining area, located in the former cart shed, serves as the central living space where various flows intersect, offering views of both interior and exterior spaces. This high-ceiling space opens onto a stone terrace on the southeast side and a garden on the northwest side, creating a continuous floor between the two sections of the land. In summer, this area merges with the outdoors, becoming a crossroads of external and internal activity. In winter, the space is heated by the morning sun and provides a comfortable nest open to the surrounding nature.