Mountain House

Avoiding a vernacular approach and all the artificial and obsolete local architecture elements, Studio Razavi Architecture realised a single family home in a highly preserved French Alpine valley.

Studio Razavi Architecture realised a single family home in a highly preserved Alpine valley, where stringent architectural guidelines allow for very little freedom of architectural expression. Everything from building height/width ratio to roof slope, via building material and window sizes are strictly controlled to enforce what is locally perceived as patrimony protection but de facto creating camp architecture, endlessly mimicking traditional mountain homes.

In order to circumvent these limitations Studio Razavi Architecture took great care in analyzing historical buildings as to understand what their forms accomplished and how they shaped the local architectural culture. They then integrated this information into design, simply avoiding all artificial and/or obsolete elements while making sure that the building was entirely code compliant.