The Island House

The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi

THE ISLAND HOUSE

Clément Lesnoff-Rocard + Gil Pescal

ARCHITECTS
Clément Lesnoff-Rocard, Gil Pescal

ARCHITECT
Gil Percal

JOINERY
RCPM

MANUFACTURERS
Kreon, Armony Cucine, Gigacer, Schneider

GENERAL CONSTRUCTION
H2J Bat

PHOTOGRAPHS
Simone Bossi

AREA
300 m²

YEAR
2020

LOCATION
France

CATEGORY
Houses, Renovation, House Interiors

This project, initiated 3 years ago, could be considered as an antagonist allegory to the famous movie Cast away, lost on an island.

The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi

Located on the outskirts of Paris, at the very foot of La Défense, an otherworldly accumulation of oversized high risers, the house stood almost lost on the edge of a tiny little street that ends abruptly abutting the massive fundaments of a cluster of towers.

This brutal situation, in between high density modernist utopia and the modestly grandiloquent 19th century architecture, emphasizes the feeling of being a tiny little Défense-less being.

The house seemed like an oyster without a shell, lost in the ocean. Luckily it was articulated around a little exotically planted patio garden and we decided at the first visit with my partner Gil Percal that this house had to be protected from this outer predatory world, turning its back to the street and only looking at itself, its garden and its own qualities, yet to be found.

The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi

What a moment of divine beauty, when you make way for this other truth where your usual trivial facilities become natural elements. When your grey green tiled floor becomes shallow water.

When your long concrete sofa becomes a sand beach where the water tickles your feet. When a massive oak tree table becomes the big tree around which you gather as a family.

When a matte black kitchen becomes the charcoal you found in the burnt forest. When a towering library becomes the cliff you climb everyday, and the books in it become the stepping stones that help you get higher.

The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi

When an oversized curtain becomes a waterfall, or even just the wind.

When a white concrete curved bridge becomes a stratus, a low cloud, passing quietly above your head. When a gigantic bay window becomes nothing but the sky, with its sunsets and sunrises.

When a wooden staircase emerging from the shallow water becomes the beginning of a path to go somewhere else, up the mountain, above the clouds.

The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi

Then you see it. It is your island, it is the island of everything. You can now close your book, put it back on the shelf and go for a walk in your garden, the real one.


The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi
The Island House
© Simone Bossi


The Island House
First floor plan
The Island House
Second floor plan
The Island House
Third floor plan