Description
An experimental house in the middle of the forest
This house is part of a remarkable group of four experimental houses built between 1968 and 1982 by architect Jean Daladier. Located near Sens, 1h30 away from Paris, these houses with their complex and innovative geometry are set in the heart of a preserved natural environment.
The “Géode” house covers an area of 203.2 sqm over three levels. It consists of a large 32-sided geodesic dome housing the living areas and intermediate spaces laid out as hanging gardens using large concrete planters.
The ground floor comprises a separate bedroom, a shower room, a utility room and a summer lounge with a vaulted ceiling that opens onto the garden. An external elliptical staircase leads to the first floor. This houses the living room, which combines the dining room, kitchen and living room with fireplace opening onto a hanging garden. Two bedrooms and a bathroom complete this level. A staircase leads to the top floor, which includes a spacious lounge and terrace.
The houses are located in the heart of the Saint-Julien forest, 140 kilometres from Paris on the Autoroute du Sud, just a few kilometres from the medieval village of Saint-Julien-du-Sault.
Architecture and nature
The terraces, the hanging garden and the large west-facing windows open onto the landscape, the sky and the vegetation, and create variations in the light that give rhythm to the interior space in relation to nature. The transitions between the living spaces, the semi-open spaces and the outdoors are remarkably well handled. The transitions between the living spaces, the semi-open spaces and the outdoors are remarkably well handled.The Daladier houses are driven by a constant concern for balance and harmony with nature.
While the shape of the geodesic dome conjures up the poetic image of a celestial vault synthesised by the hand of man, for Daladier the study of polyhedra opens the door to research into innovative construction systems that are both economical and ecological, offering maximum volume for minimum structure. Laid on the ground, the self-supporting structures of the Trois Coupoles and the Géode have no foundations, in keeping with the architect’s ecological approach.
Archive image, all rights reserved.
Archive image, all rights reserved.
The Géode’s self-supporting framework is made up of concrete ribs articulated according to the triangulation principle. This construction technique, which has no load-bearing walls, means that the building can be erected very quickly, with a vast span allowing considerable partitioning flexibility and savings on materials.
An exceptional experimental ensemble
Conceived as prototypes for collective projects, these individual villas with their new geometries respond to a dream: that of an architecture that is modular and infinitely extensible, respectful of nature and in osmosis with it, achieving a synthesis between material life and spirituality.
While the 1960s and 1970s saw a proliferation of alternative research in architecture, the use of concrete to create habitable geodesic domes was rare, making the Daladier houses an exceptional example of this type of architecture raised to the level of habitable sculpture.
Of the four houses that make up this unique ensemble, three are currently available for sale: the “Trois Coupoles” house, the “Géode” house and, if all three houses are purchased together, the “Ermitage” house. Each house is set in its own clearing, within a preserved wood rich in biodiversity.
Celebrating the home as a space for permanent reinvention, these houses, which have been listed as Historic Monuments since 2014, are now looking for a buyer who loves architecture and nature, and who will be able to rekindle their creative power to enjoy an exceptional and inspiring living environment.
Jean Daladier: an avant-garde architect
When Jean Daladier began work on the ‘Trois Coupoles’ house in 1967, he had already embarked on an atypical career as a self-taught man, nurtured by commitment, travel and encounters with the Resistance fighters Bernard and Geneviève Anthonioz, the writer André Malraux, the art collector Dominique de Ménil, the actors Jean Vilar and Tania Balachova, the architect Le Corbusier, the painters Jean Degottex and Roberto Matta, and the musician Iannis Xenakis.
Alongside his work on new structures, Jean Daladier devoted a large part of his time to saving and restoring old Parisian buildings between Place Maubert and the Seine: Quai de la Tournelle, Quai de Montebello, Rue de Bièvre and Rue Maître Alber, and Rue des Grands Degrés, buildings that had been threatened with demolition in the 1960s and had become prestigious. For him, the two fields are by no means dissociated: “to bring a 16th-century house back to life, it’s not a question of meticulously restoring what may have existed; you have to use what can be saved to create a balanced space, habitable today by the people of our time, and which they in turn will leave their mark on”.
Jean Daladier’s avant-garde reflections on the notions of space and time included new relationships between architecture, painting, town planning and music. Many artists worked in his experimental houses, and a number of artistic personalities such as musicians Iannis Xenakis and Marie-Françoise Bucquet occupied them.
