A.TM creates two minimalist homes in "architectural dialogue" with French manor
Architecture studio Atelier Tropisme Mécanique has completed two homes on the grounds of a 17th-century manor house in France with walls clad in local Armorican granite.
Named Houses on Rue de Clermont, the pair of minimalist dwellings sits close to a historic manor house within a 4,600-square-metre walled park in Laval.
The park's gardens and paths were also restored by Atelier Tropisme Mécanique (A.TM) as part of the project.
A.TM founder Thomas Motrieux wanted the homes to engage in a "deliberate architectural dialogue" with the existing manor house, which informed two low, L-shaped forms that look towards it from behind their own small walled gardens.
"The dwellings were conceived as architectural appendages to the manor – structures that extend its garden logic, echoing traditional outbuildings, rather than competing with it," he told Dezeen.
"Enclosure walls were used strategically," added Motrieux. "They protect privacy, shape each dwelling’s microcosm, and open selectively to frame views towards the wooded area."
Located near the park's northern gate, the two L-shaped homes sit slightly offset from one another on either side of a main path.
Each home is organised around a living, dining and kitchen space at its centre, which opens onto a concrete patio surrounding a square, walled courtyard accessed through sliding glass doors.
This central living space is flanked by the bedrooms and a small study, all of which overlook the patio and garden through large windows shaded by the overhang of a mono-pitched zinc roof.
The walls that wrap each home's courtyard garden gradually step down towards the edge of the site, permitting light and framing views of the surrounding planting.
Both the walls of the homes and their gardens are clad in local Armorican granite, laid in a pattern that references the lintels typical to the area.
The oak joinery of the courtyard-facing windows defines the interiors of each home, and is carried through into the internal doorframes set within white-painted walls.
"The slight stepping of the walls, inviting daylight while maintaining privacy, is another subtle yet powerful move that defines the character of the interiors," Motrieux said.
"These masonry walls support a light standing-seam zinc roof, whose shallow pitch and Lavallois-style gutters produce a refined, horizontal silhouette that blends quietly into the site," he added.
"Finally, the patio façades use hybrid oak-aluminium joinery, balancing warmth, durability, and contemporary precision."
Elsewhere in Laval, Hérault Arnod Architectures completed a sports centre that is topped by a twisting roof of aluminium plates.
Other French houses recently featured on Dezeen include a 1960s lakeside villa renovated by Atelier Archiple and a historic French farm building revamped by Bétyle Studio with wood and glass partitions.
The photography is by Francois Baudry.
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