Les Jeurs House, named after the hamlet overlooking the road to the Col de la Forclaz, is a project that is rooted in local memory through its interpretation of the form and scale of neighbouring traditional buildings.
Like the typical Valais granaries, it consists of a stone base upon which a dark timber volume is raised above ground level. Since the construction of a single, large volume would have disrupted the harmony of scale of the location, the building is divided into two parts. These are connected by the entrance on the mountain side and face the valley at an angle of 45 degrees.
From above, only a single M-shaped silhouette can be seen, recalling the outline of the mountains. From below, the two volumes rising up from the ground resemble the archetypal houses drawn by children.
Two large windows, one in the ground floor living room and the other in the master bedroom on the first floor, bring the landscape into the house. The windows facing each other on the two facades create a visual relationship between the two sections of the chalet.
The untreated fir wood structure resting on a concrete slab, the vertical, tinted larch cladding, the half-sunken basement and the interior space divided into small elements that play with the different levels, are all characteristics that bring the project close to the feel of a traditional chalet.
