Modernist house

This property, spread over three levels, is organized around a custom-designed staircase created by the architect.

The ground floor offers a variety of possible uses: it can function as a bedroom with a shower room, an office, or even a studio/workshop.

The first floor hosts a bright living space, composed of a living room with a fireplace and a semi-open kitchen connected to the dining room. These rooms open onto a continuous terrace.

The second and top floor is dedicated to the sleeping areas: a master suite with numerous built-in closets, as well as two children’s bedrooms with desks and storage. This level is completed by a shower room and separate toilets.

The property also benefits from a tree-filled garden and a garage.

The house has retained many of its original features designed by Louis Gombeaud.

Located in Bordeaux, in the Jardin Public district, this house enjoys a privileged setting close to the city center, the riverbanks, several parks, and cultural venues.

It benefits from all local amenities and is very well served by public transport (trams and buses: Arsenal, St Maur, and Camille Godard stops), allowing easy access to the city center in just 10 minutes. By car, Mérignac Airport and the motorway can be reached in 28 and 15 minutes respectively.

The living room is organized around a fixed architectural feature that structures the space. Composed of a built-in bench, a bookcase, and a fireplace, it helps define and organize the different uses of the room.

Louis Gombeaud’s semi-open kitchen draws inspiration, both theoretically and in its built form, from that of the Unité d’Habitation de Marseille. This project was conceptualized by Le Corbusier and his collaborators, including Charlotte Perriand, Simone Galpin, and members of the Atelier des Bâtisseurs. Gombeaud adopts the principle of the serving hatch, creating a visual and functional connection between the kitchen and the reception area.

The openings define the relationship with the exterior and with light. Their proportions and sill heights are carefully calibrated to frame the view and allow natural light to fill the space.

Through the precision of his design, the architect establishes a true living environment, conceived at every scale, from the overall vision down to the door handle. The extension of architecture into the furniture, the careful choice of materials, the precision of the joinery, as well as the composition and formal restraint, all reflect Louis Gombeaud’s architectural approach.

This house is part of the body of post-war modernist works in Bordeaux that successfully adapted the generic and international principles of the Modern Movement to a local context. It reflects a pivotal moment when certain architects rethought urban housing with rigor and coherence.

Built in 1953 by architect Louis Gombeaud, the house embodies this new momentum and a certain avant-garde spirit: the stratified organization of the plan, the relationship between the different levels, the staircase conceived as a central compositional element, the structural furniture, and the semi-open kitchen all make this work a manifesto of Bordeaux modernity.

Trained in the spirit of the Modern Movement and a student of Claude Ferret, Louis Gombeaud belongs to the generation of architects of the 1960s who shaped the architectural landscape of southwestern France with precision and restraint.
Rooted between Bordeaux and Cap Ferret, he developed a body of work guided by the clarity of the plan, natural light, and the intimate relationship between architecture and landscape.

His approach continues the tradition of humanist modernism championed by the École Bordelaise (architects such as Salier, Courtois, Lajus, and Sadirac), while asserting a personal voice that is more domestic and contemplative. Far from any formal exaggeration, Louis Gombeaud designed houses where every detail, beam, opening, roof overhang, contributes to a balance between rigor and softness.

Today, his work, exemplified by the house he designed for himself at Cap Ferret, embodies an enduring Atlantic modernity: architecture that is both precise and poetic.