Description
An experimental house in the middle of the forest
This house is part of a remarkable group of four experimental homes built between 1968 and 1982 by architect Jean Daladier. Located near Sens, 1h30 from Paris, these houses with their complex and innovative geometry are set in the heart of a preserved natural environment.
The “Trois Coupoles” house offers 160 sqm of living space on two levels. Its structure is composed of three juxtaposed geodesic faceted domes.
The first floor features a 47.6 sqm double-height living room with no interior supports, organized around a sculptural suspended brazier. Large triangular windows open generously onto the exterior. A kitchen, three bedrooms – with varied forest views – and a bathroom complete this level. A second living room and bathroom are located upstairs.
The houses are located in the heart of the Saint-Julien forest, 140 kilometers from Paris on the Autoroute du Sud, a few kilometers from the medieval village of Saint-Julien-du-Sault.
A unique blend of art and architecture
Les Maisons Daladier are driven by an ideal of integrating the arts with architecture and landscape.
Works by artist Jean Degottex, created especially for the house, are still present. Three circular white elements, marked with a simple open line, are “integrated” under the living room dome. Called “Spacifiques”, these abstract works are designed to encourage meditation.
At the back of the house, in the clearing, Jean Degottex’s sculpture, “Signal”, captures the sun as it descends. It forms a counterpoint to the domes and echoes the verticality of the forest trees.
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“Horspaces” by Jean Degottex and Jean Daladier at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris 1970.
An exceptional experimental ensemble
Conceived as prototypes for collective realizations, these individual villas with their new geometries respond to a dream: that of an architecture that is modular and infinitely expandable, respectful of nature and in osmosis with it, achieving a synthesis between material life and spirituality.
While the 1960s-1970s were marked by a profusion of alternative architectural research, the use of concrete to create habitable geodesic domes was rare, making the Daladier houses an exceptional example of architecture elevated 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” and, in the case of a group purchase of all three houses, the “Ermitage”. Each house is set in a distinct clearing, within a preserved wood rich in biodiversity.
Celebrating the home as a space for permanent reinvention, these houses, classified 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 construction of the “Trois Coupoles” house in 1967, he had behind him an atypical, self-taught career nourished by commitment, travel and encounters with resistance fighters Bernard and Geneviève Anthonioz, writer André Malraux, art collector Dominique de Ménil, actors Jean Vilar and Tania Balachova, architect Le Corbusier, painters Jean Degottex and Roberto Matta, and musician Iannis Xenakis.
Alongside his work on new structures, Jean Daladier devoted much of his time to safeguarding and rehabilitating old Parisian buildings between Place Maubert and the Seine: Quai de la Tournelle, Quai de Montebello, Rue de Bièvre and Rue Maître Alber, as well as 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 truly revive a 16th-century house, it’s not a question of meticulously restoring what may have existed; from what can be saved, a balanced space must be created, habitable today by the people of our time, and which they in turn will leave their mark.
“Jean Daladier’s avant-garde reflections on notions of space and time included new relationships between architecture, painting, urban planning and music. Many artists worked in his experimental houses, and several artistic personalities such as musicians Iannis Xenakis and Marie-Françoise Bucquet occupied them.
