The site has particularly interesting natural and topographical features: a strong slope ending with a cliff, featuring horizontally arranged natural – even sculptural – white rocks with medium sized oak and pine trees sprouting between the rocks. The site overlooks the village of Fatre and the Adonis valley and has unobstructed view up to Mount Lebanon to the East and down to the Mediterranean Sea to the West.
Project Name: Fatre House
Studio Name: platau
The house was imagined from the beginning to be a part of this serene natural settings and inhabit it by making the most of its features and levels. The placement of the different parts of the house is the result of an accurate topographical survey of the elements of the site, the interesting rock formations that will be highlighted and the trees that should be saved.
Three main terraced levels were identified, each offering a different orientation for the house and each connected to a different rock formation. The entrance and main space are located on the upper level, with the reception looking towards the sea while the kitchen turning toward the mountain. The living and bedrooms are located on the lower level, projected towards the view to leave a space in the back, highlighting the main rock formation. The third level hosts the pool with another rock formation to its back and continues further down to the pool house and technical facilities.
From the driveway above, sloping from the road, several steps access the entrance. A transversal stairs connecting the reception space with the bedrooms level cuts through the rocks within a glazed box. Further steps connect the lower level to the pool, then down the pool house. The central part of the house, with the two floating white frames and the glazed stairs, seem to be cascading down the slope and projecting towards the view, while the sides are following the existing topography and hidden between rocks and trees.
The house is a play of volumes following the constraints of the site and defining two different materials and architectonic approaches towards the landscape. One part follows the site using low stone volumes – made of the site’s stone resulting from the excavation – marrying with the existing terraces and rock formations (kitchen, bedrooms and pool area) and another, fair faced concrete and glass, floating over the stone base (reception), reflecting nature (stairs) and projecting toward the view (living).
The spaces resulting from this play of volumes, levels and materials in relation with the diverse landscape of rocks and trees presents a large array of spatial qualities of light, colors and materiality.
