Alice in Wonderwall

"La peau est ce qu’il y a de plus profond" (P.Valery) – "The skin is the deepest thing there is."

At the heart of the project is the challenge of making energy efficiency a genuine design tool, by rethinking conventional typologies and ways of living. This drives the idea of a housing model made up of successive layers, with a double skin which allows gentle transitions between interior and exterior spaces, through transparency and varying degrees of privacy, between home and community, mineral and natural. In the project, the double skin becomes an ambiguous, in-between moment: it is the boundary of the dwelling, but also an open environment for distinctive uses and activities, both private and collective. Rearranging the spaces to take account of temperature achieved minimum heat loss, whilst creating unusual layouts and ambiences.