Description
A contemporary house with swimming pool in Nîmes
This contemporary house was built in 1992 by architect Michel Gerber, a pioneer of bioclimatic architecture in France.
The house spans 270 sqm over two levels.
The ground floor features a superb 72 sqm double-height reception room with a sleek fireplace, an open-plan fitted kitchen with dining area, two bedrooms, a shower room and a utility room. Served by a beautiful semi-circular staircase illuminated by a large glass roof, the first floor houses three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a beautiful terrace and a metal walkway.
It stands in the heart of a superb 5,000 sqm plot planted with trees and boasts an 11 x 5 metre swimming pool.
It is located in a leafy residential area of Nîmes, around 10 minutes’ drive from the city centre. It is an hour’s drive from Avignon and around 45 minutes from Arles.
A Californian aesthetic
The house has a pure aesthetic, all glass and metal. The vast bay windows create sunny, outward-facing living spaces. The use of bioclimatic bricks with vertical cells ensures that the house stays cool in summer and warm in winter.
A bioclimatic house
A bioclimatic house is first and foremost a sensible home, respectful of the environment in which it is built, economical in the use of raw materials, functional and comfortable.
This type of housing requires special considerations, such as a detailed analysis of the site, careful construction management, the use of specific processes to reduce the building’s impact on the environment, special attention to thermal, acoustic and health comfort in the building, and the functional qualities of the home.
Michel Gerber
A native of German-speaking Switzerland, Michel Gerber is one of the pioneers of bioclimatic architecture in France. Driven by his passion and admiration for the Bauhaus, the architect moved to Chicago to study at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and joined Mies Van der Rohe’s practice.
His master’s degree in town planning already took environmental concerns into account. On his return from the United States, Michel Gerber settled in the Languedoc-Roussillon region and developed his environmental ideas. He built one of the first, if not the first, passive solar house from the ruins of a tenant farm. He sees architecture and urban planning as essential pivots for building a society that is more respectful of the environment, aware of its resources and its space. He also defends modest architecture at the service of its inhabitants.
From 1974 to 2002, Michel Gerber taught at the Toulouse School of Architecture, where he helped set up the GRECAU laboratory (Groupe de Recherche Environnement et Conception en Architecture et Urbanisme), and then at the Montpellier School of Architecture. He died in September 2017.
