Guest house of 32 m2 in a former barn

The architects of the French bureau Le Cann turned the utility room into a small guest house in Castillon du Gard near Avignon. It is full of surprises — architectural, tactile and even artistic!

Photo

Alice Mesgish

This small guest house with an area of only 32 square meters, standing near the famous Pont du Gard aqueduct, until recently was a small utility room, which the previous owners used as a shed, garage and storage room. The new owners were impressed by its picturesque view — with a tiled roof and facades lined with traditional Provencal tiles — and decided to realize their long-standing dream of a mini-hotel here. The problem was only in the interiors: with unpainted walls made of concrete blocks, a boring ceiling and cracked floors, something had to be done.

The renovation of the building was carried out by architects from the Le Canne bureau, who drew inspiration from local traditions and retro-futurism of the 1970s and 1980s and successfully combined custom-made items and designer vintage.

On the floor and base — dense sisal. Pillows made of Huahune, Nobilis fabric. On the wall is the work of Gauthier Rimbaud-Joffard.

Photo

Alice Mesgish

Photo

Alice Mesgish

Photo

Alice Mesgish

"We had to breathe life into this absolutely dead space. We needed to create a place where couples could hang out — with an open space, warm and welcoming and not devoid of an artistic mood — and relax after a hot summer day," say the authors of the project Raphael Robert (Raphaëlle Robert) and Guillaume Fantin (Guillaume Fantin) from Le Cann studio.

Poly chair, coll. Muses, Le Cann. Gulp table lamp, Ingo Maurer.

Photo

Alice Mesgish

There are two works by Aliska Lahusen on the wall. Adelphi curtain, Dedar.

Photo

Alice Mesgish

From the featureless ceiling, Raphael and Guillaume created an entire architectural empire with a play of forms. They built new volumes, restoring the double height of the living room along the roof ridge. This axis set the symmetry of the space and suggested how to disguise the technical stuffing (it hides in rounded volumes on the sides of the central axis. In the center of the house there is a living room with a podium, on the right — a kitchen and a bathroom, on the left — a bedroom behind a screen, an office and a dressing room.

On the steel apron is a wooden relief by Giuliano Mancini.

Photo

Alice Mesgish

"We always work with a very minimalistic shell drawn along symmetrical axes. We like to play with volumes, and not to split the space with partitions"

The kitchen is made of stainless steel, playing on the contrast with the muted texture of the plaster on the walls and the sisal floor.

Photo

Alice Mesgish

In the main space, the floor, podium and steps were lined with a sisal coating, warm and textured, the walls and ceiling were covered with matte plaster. In contrast to these materials, the architects chose a kitchen with stainless steel facades reflecting sunlight.

In this soft-toned space, the architects made several bright accents. On one side of the living room is a steel kitchen, and on the other — a lacquered vintage screen in black and gold color, fencing off the bedroom area with a bed on the podium.

Uranie bedside table, coll. Muses, Le Cann.

Photo

Alice Mesgish

Above the bed is a metal engraving by Giorgio de Tonti. On the screen is a framed piece of fabric from the installation of Christo and Jeanne—Claude "Wrapped Arc de Triomphe".

Photo

Alice Mesgish

Travertine stone, traditional for this region, was used for the bathroom cladding. The task of the architects was not to imitate some imaginary "south of France", but to rethink local traditions in a modern way, integrating them into the interior and adding modern geometric shapes and details. And they did it 100%.%

The walls of the bathroom are finished with local travertine. Mirror Euterpe, coll. Muses, Le Cann.

Photo

Alice Mesgish

​Vintage lamp, Parentesi, diz. Achille Castiglioni for Flos, 1970s.
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