In the Landes, southwestern region of France, within an “airial”, a large airy plot whose typology and name are specific to the department, this wooden frame house welcomes a vertical cladding with black wood joint covers and natural eaves. It is a construction that intends to respect the characteristics of the airial by borrowing the aesthetics of barns and other agricultural buildings originally built on those large grassed areas. 

In this second home project, the emphasis has been placed on the living room where gatherings and activities with friends are frequent whiles on vacation. It is a double-height space that includes the kitchen, living room, stove, and furniture staircase that leads upstairs. Behind this room, you will find the master bedroom, a dressing room, a bathroom, and a utility room. Upstairs there is a guest bedroom, a dormitory, and a bathroom. 

Two very wide openings face each other in the living room, therefore making it a not-inside-nor-outside space, a covered space where it is possible to shelter from the rain and the sun. In the summer, the two-meter cantilevered, asymmetrical eaves prevent the southwestern rays from reaching the house, and thus, coupled with the ventilation of the facing bays, the central space promises a certain coolness. 

Large sliding shutters made of black wood claustra filter the light during the day and protect from animal intrusions at night allowing the house to be naturally ventilated at all times. 

The entire outline of the building is encircled by a concrete ribbon, the width of which coincides with the eaves overhanging it. It can be considered as a corridor of the house on which all the doors of the ground floor can be opened. In the bedrooms, the windows are square and frame the first-morning landscape, the forest to the east, as a photograph.

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