Architecture studio Atelier Tropisme Mécanique has designed and completed two houses on the grounds of a 17th-century manor in France, featuring walls clad in locally sourced Armorican granite.
Called Houses on Rue de Clermont, the two minimalist residences are located close to the historic manor house, situated within a 4,600-square-metre walled park in Laval.
As part of the project, Atelier Tropisme Mécanique (A.TM) also restored the park’s gardens and pathways.
Thomas Motrieux, founder of A.TM, aimed for the new homes to establish an intentional architectural dialogue with the original manor. The result is two low, L-shaped buildings that face the manor house from behind their individual 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.”
Set near the park’s northern entrance, the two L-shaped houses are positioned slightly apart on either side of a main pathway.
Each house is centred around an open-plan living, dining, and kitchen area, which extends out to a concrete patio that wraps around a square, enclosed courtyard accessible through sliding glass doors.
This central living area is bordered by bedrooms and a compact study, all of which look out onto the patio and gardens through expansive windows shaded by the overhanging mono-pitched zinc roof.
The walls surrounding each home’s courtyard garden step down incrementally towards the perimeter of the site, allowing more light in and framing views of the landscaped surroundings.
The houses and their garden walls are both clad in Armorican granite, arranged in a pattern inspired by the region’s typical lintels.
Inside each home, oak joinery frames the courtyard-facing windows and continues into the internal door frames, contrasting with the 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 has completed a sports centre featuring a twisted aluminium roof.
Other French homes recently highlighted by Dezeen include a 1960s lakeside villa renovated by Atelier Archiple, and a historic farm building transformed by Bétyle Studio with wooden and glass partitions.
Photography by Francois Baudry.
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