by Jacinthe Gigou
Le Balcon de Belledonne, the only building designed by the architects Häusermann-Costy in Isère, is nestled deep in the mountains at an altitude of 1,200 metres. This remarkable example of organic living has been given a new lease of life thanks to the meticulous restoration work carried out by a couple of passionate art historians.
© Alice Christophe, Balcon de Belledonne
The Belledonne mountain range in the Alps is a magnetic natural backdrop, with snow-capped peaks in winter and lush green meadows in summer. Facing it, a white house with organic lines seems to have landed like a UFO on the mountainside. The doors, made from an assembly of agricultural tools covered in fibreglass, appear like yellow-orange chrysalises. “The head on the front door is the head of my grandfather’s hammer, who worked in factories in Lorraine,” says Alice Christophe, who has owned the premises since 2021. It’s one of the many handmade restorations carried out by the owners, who arrived here somewhat by chance. Alice Christophe, an art historian and curator, and her husband Scott Lawrimore, a curator, are a Franco-American duo with a keen eye for rare objects. “Just after the pandemic, Scott and I took refuge here, in my family’s region. Like many people at the time, we wanted to get back to nature. Initially, the couple were looking for a farmhouse to renovate, but while scouring the classified ads, they came across the sleeping beauty: “maybe it was the house that chose us after all…”.
© Alice Christophe, Balcon de Belledonne
Wellness centre
In the early 1960s, a yoga teacher bought a plot of land in the Chartreuse mountains to build a living and wellness space open to the public, complete with swimming pool, solarium and sauna. At the time, yoga was the preserve of a fringe minority, guided by an ideal of a free, bohemian lifestyle. His girlfriend was reading Elle magazine and came across an article about the shell houses designed by Pascal Häusermann and Claude Costy. Convinced by these innovative and economical creations, the couple contacted the architects, placing their trust in them.
1966, Daniel Telmont photograph © FRAC Centre Val-de-Loire
After a visit to the site, the builders sketched out a plan for a concrete shell building, the multiple cells of which are supported by the rocks and the relief of the land. They named the site Balcon de Belledonne, to evoke the unobstructed view that the house would afford of the massif of the same name. Thanks to a ruse, they obtained planning permission, labelling the place a vegetarian restaurant. They drew the tables and chairs on the plans, and that was it. Le Balcon de Belledonne was built in just a few months and opened in the summer of 1966. Although the restaurant never opened its doors, many practitioners came from all over the world for a yoga retreat or a wellness break. But in the early 1970s, the owner wanted to meet the Dalai Lama and went to Tibet. The site was sold and passed through various hands until 2007, when a swimming pool owner converted it into a year-round residence until 2020. His profession gave him the idea of temporarily insulating the house by covering it with a PVC liner in strips, creating a sort of inverted swimming pool, with the appearance of mummies.
© FRAC Centre Val-de-Loire
Liberating shapes
In France in the 1950s, a fringe group of architects campaigned against the functionalism of post-1945 Reconstruction. They developed new techniques for building free forms, such as shotcrete on steel reinforcement, leading to the advent of sculpture-architecture and bubble-houses. Claude Costy (1931) and Pascal Häusermann (1936-2011) were among these architects. They met at the Geneva School of Architecture, where Claude was one of the first female graduates, in 1962. A couple both at work and in the city, they formed a partnership from 1963 to 1972 before going their separate ways. Pioneers of organic architecture, they were followed by Antti Lovag, Pierre Székely and Henri Mouette.
They designed environmentally-friendly buildings that promoted harmony between the building and its environment, especially in the Auvergne-Rhônes-Alpes region. Costy is often forgotten in accounts of the couple, yet it was she who largely developed the shotcrete technique. Among her personal buildings, the Douvaine school in Haute-Savoie (1971-78) and the Unal house in Ardèche (1973-2008) are outstanding examples. The bubble houses, which inspired the Barbapapa series of children’s books in the 70s, are a kind of critique of the radicalism of Modernism. Favouring curves and human proportions, they have sprung up all over France, some of them listed as Historic Monuments. After a trip to Crete, Costy discovered pottery and has devoted herself to it since the late 1990s. She still teaches pottery in her bubble house in Minzier.
© Alice Christophe, Balcon de Belledonne
Auto-restauration
“We got the keys in June 2021. At first, we didn’t know where to start…” says the owner. The house was in a sorry state and in need of complete restoration. After seeking the advice of craftsmen who also didn’t know where to start, the pair decided to restore the building themselves. “That’s when we contacted Claude Costy,” explains our host. Living nearby, she advised: “This house is concrete, iron, glass and resin. All you have to do is clean up the cracks, rebuild the shapes, sand and paint “. Easy to say… Once the underfloor heating and electrical structure had been installed, it was time to start fitting out the interior. But none of the furniture on the market is suitable for a bubble house. So after improvising as bricklayers, the couple became decorators and furniture designers. They made bespoke sofas, sinks and showers in concrete, and doors and cupboards in resin and iron, just as they were when the house was first built. “We made life-size models out of cardboard, and everything was done on a human scale,” says Alice. Last September, the house was completely restored and revealed its welcoming warmth. In the living room, the curvaceous made-to-measure concrete sofa is an invitation to settle in. Here and there, ceramics by Claude Costy bring the architect back to the house.
© Alice Christophe, Balcon de Belledonne
A night in paradise
But the story doesn’t end there. The annex bubble, originally intended as a sauna, will soon be restored as a tiny house. To finance this second phase of work, the owners are renting out the house to raise the funds needed for the restoration. Bookings are open from April to November, during the summer months. “The morning light is magical, coming in through the large window and warming up the main room. Time stands still, you’re part of the world,” says Alice. In the long term, the aim is to open the house to the public on a regular basis, in particular for the Heritage Days, and to welcome artists: ” we are the passers-by of this incredible place and we want to continue to bring it to life by preserving the link with the public…”.
JACINTHE GIGOU
© Morgane Delfosse
An art and architecture historian, Jacinthe Gigou has been working for twenty years on the promotion and dissemination of modern architecture. She worked as a curator at CIVA and director of the heritage agency Arkadia in Brussels until 2020. She co-created the Brussels Art Nouveau & Art Deco Festival and the Brussels Biennale of Modern Architecture. In 2021, she founded Modernista, a platform dedicated to Belgian Modernism. In parallel, she works as an architecture journalist and critic for various media, and co-authored the book 150 houses you need to visit before you die.
Instagram : @modernista.be