La Lisière

Set in a 2.5-hectare enclosed estate on the edge of the Fontainebleau forest, with a bridle path running through it, this grouped, detached housing development features 7 top-of-the-range, eco-friendly homes, all designed in wood and each with its own private landscaped plot of around 1,200 sqm.

Each plot can be designed in close dialogue with its purchaser (the future sponsor of the project), who can choose from a range of architectural options to create a living space tailored to his or her needs and desires: pitched or inverted roofs, natural or tinted facades, round or orthogonal bay windows, terraces on the ground floor, at mid-height or on the roof, covered or uncovered, etc.

A detached house offers between 136 sqm and 190 sqm of living space. Each home offers a freely adaptable programme, ranging from a two-storey family home to a vast, open-plan, double-height volume. The interior layout is entirely bespoke, and can include a dining room for 2 to 20 people, a kitchen that opens onto the outside, 2 to 5 bedrooms (including a master suite and dormitory), attic space that can be converted or left unused, an artist’s or craftsman’s studio, a fitness room or a sauna.

Outdoor facilities are also available (wood store, bicycle or canoe shelter, open or enclosed garage).

“La Lisière enjoys an exceptional location, in a green setting on the edge of the Fontainebleau forest, in the village of Barbizon, a major centre of French artistic history.

Residents will benefit from all the village’s local amenities: shops, school, chemist, doctor, post office, leisure facilities, etc. 15 minutes on foot, 5 minutes by bike or 4 minutes by car. Paris is less than 50 minutes away by car or train.

To encourage collective living while preserving the freedom and privacy of each individual, this grouped housing project will include common spaces, facilities and services reserved for residents, such as a swimming pool consisting of a natural pool with plant filtration and shared vegetable gardens.

The La Lisière development is set in a vast woodland estate, on the edge of a clearing where a remarkable eclectic 1920s villa stands.

This villa is the subject of a renovation project studied by the Ciguë agency, offering a wide range of development possibilities: division into several private flats, creation of a co-living and co-working space, use as a bed and breakfast, an agency for the self-employed, etc.

The Ciguë architecture studio has specifically developed a unique and sustainable construction process in solid wood, which guarantees the environmental quality, landscape integration and aesthetic harmony of La Lisière.

All materials are biosourced or geosourced, for a minimal carbon footprint. The high-performance insulation is made from wood fibre and hemp wool to ensure a healthy atmosphere, and the joinery and cladding are made from wood.

The homes will be heated by a pellet-fired boiler, and each house will have its own stove and rainwater collection system for watering the garden.

Since it was founded in 2003, ciguë has sought to produce architecture at the crossroads of space, design and installation. The desire to reconnect architecture with the act of making has continued to evolve over the nearly 20 years of its existence, in response to encounters, projects and contexts. Today, this culture of thinking and doing finds its balance between diversified architectural production, daily manipulation of materials, and research projects carried out in the studio, particularly on the question of virtuous materials and, more broadly, energy savings.

Based in Montreuil, in a space that is both an agency and a research workshop, the team, which now numbers around twenty people, develops a wide range of projects, from public buildings to bespoke objects, including the renovation of heritage sites and the creation of places to live, produce and sell around the world. The current partners are Camille Bénard, Julien Franc Wahlgreen, Guillem Renard and Alphonse Sarthout.The agency has recently completed the three storeys of the Samaritaine in the Sanaa building on rue de Rivoli, a bioclimatic wooden house in Haute Vienne, a coffee shop for the Japanese brand Arabica in New York and research into plaster concrete, exhibited and published by the Pavillon de l’Arsenal.

At present, ciguë is working on around twenty projects, including the Cergy Art School in collaboration with the Nantes-based agency Raum, a building in Jakarta to house a Arabica boutique, the renovation of a 120-room hotel in Athens, a restaurant in a greenhouse in Egypt on the shores of the Red Sea and its future studio/living space in Montreuil.

“Living in La Lisière in Barbizon means inventing a new, authentic way of life based on immersion in the forest, a change of scenery and a sense of the wild.”

Thierry Laverne, landscape designer.

Laverne Paysage & Urbanisme has a team of around ten landscape architects, urban planners, agronomists and architects. It leads a number of projects that demonstrate, each on its own scale of space and time, the need and advantage of reconciling naturalness and urbanity in a sustainable way through landscape design.

Founded by engineer Justine Culioli, Ma is a multidisciplinary agency with many years’ experience in project development, investment and property promotion. Ma is committed to connecting people, putting people back at the heart of the city, putting architecture and the environment back into perspective, and reconciling heritage with the world of tomorrow.

With a wealth of experience at Bouygues Construction, SFL and Affine, Justine Culioli has been involved in a number of major projects, including the restructuring and transformation of #cloud.paris, the shops at Louvre Saint Honoré, 83 Marceau and Le Biome in Paris, IN OUT in Boulogne Billancourt, Le Vaisseau in Issy-les-Moulineaux and the construction of The Link tower at La Défense, which has received a great deal of media coverage for its innovative qualities.

In 2021, Justine Culioli and Ma won the Pierre d’Or in the Avenir category.