Morbihan 2

Following our first completed and published project in the Gulf of Morbihan, we were contacted by an active, newly retired couple. She had been a vet at Vincennes Zoo; he was a former international gymnastics champion in rings and pommel horse. Their second home was set to become their main residence, with space to welcome children, grandchildren and friends in the annexe.
This dynamic, modern couple asked us to transform the house and adjoining garage, bringing in more light through roof alterations, new glazing and dormers replacing rooflights, while improving spatial flow by partly removing a mezzanine and creating a sculptural bridge between the children’s play and sleeping areas. Part of the garage became an independent living space with a kitchen, shower room, separate WC and mezzanine sleeping area.
Our main focus was the living area. Previously oppressive and disjointed, it needed opening up—not through its already bright façades with six large glazed openings, but by rethinking the mezzanine, now containing the couple’s study and a play area for their grandchildren, together with its staircase and bridge.
The mezzanine. We needed to find a new purpose for this area. Previously, an almost complete upper floor housed extra wood-panelled, colourful bedrooms. The clients did not need so much floor space; reducing it allowed the ground-floor living area to breathe. We created a level primarily for the children and grandchildren. Bright and fully glazed, it allows the grandparents to keep an eye on the youngest while giving them independence, whether from the living room or kitchen. A bespoke full-height matt-white steel glazed screen overlooks the living room below.
The bridge. A study in gesture and apparent weightlessness, with a glass balustrade contrasting with matt-white steel bars. We clad a reinforced-concrete structure in a thin, faceted shell of straight-grained oak, like a modern, asymmetrical interpretation of a boat’s hull. This “boat” crosses the concrete beam supporting the retained mezzanine. To emphasise height and scale, rods extend from bridge floor to ceiling. They have no structural role: they punctuate the space and lessen the sense of vertigo beside the glass balustrade.
The staircase. A partly suspended staircase rises above an oak joinery unit, the contrast heightening its floating appearance. Fixed to the gable wall, it is supported on the other side by white steel tension rods. Where the bridge has round bars, the staircase uses flat matt-white lacquered steel. We softened this angular rigour with rope woven around the bars.
A nautical reference, reinterpreting a boat’s lines?
An echo of the owner’s athletic past and the ropes supporting his favourite apparatus, the rings?
Or a practical way of addressing the spacing requirements of a balustrade?
We leave you to decide.
Photography: © Arnaud Rinuccini

Following our first completed and published project in the Gulf of Morbihan, we were contacted by an active, newly retired couple. She had been a vet at Vincennes Zoo; he was a former international gymnastics champion in rings and pommel horse. Their second home was set to become their main residence, with space to welcome children, grandchildren and friends in the annexe.
This dynamic, modern couple asked us to transform the house and adjoining garage, bringing in more light through roof alterations, new glazing and dormers replacing rooflights, while improving spatial flow by partly removing a mezzanine and creating a sculptural bridge between the children’s play and sleeping areas. Part of the garage became an independent living space with a kitchen, shower room, separate WC and mezzanine sleeping area.
Our main focus was the living area. Previously oppressive and disjointed, it needed opening up—not through its already bright façades with six large glazed openings, but by rethinking the mezzanine, now containing the couple’s study and a play area for their grandchildren, together with its staircase and bridge.
The mezzanine. We needed to find a new purpose for this area. Previously, an almost complete upper floor housed extra wood-panelled, colourful bedrooms. The clients did not need so much floor space; reducing it allowed the ground-floor living area to breathe. We created a level primarily for the children and grandchildren. Bright and fully glazed, it allows the grandparents to keep an eye on the youngest while giving them independence, whether from the living room or kitchen. A bespoke full-height matt-white steel glazed screen overlooks the living room below.
The bridge. A study in gesture and apparent weightlessness, with a glass balustrade contrasting with matt-white steel bars. We clad a reinforced-concrete structure in a thin, faceted shell of straight-grained oak, like a modern, asymmetrical interpretation of a boat’s hull. This “boat” crosses the concrete beam supporting the retained mezzanine. To emphasise height and scale, rods extend from bridge floor to ceiling. They have no structural role: they punctuate the space and lessen the sense of vertigo beside the glass balustrade.
The staircase. A partly suspended staircase rises above an oak joinery unit, the contrast heightening its floating appearance. Fixed to the gable wall, it is supported on the other side by white steel tension rods. Where the bridge has round bars, the staircase uses flat matt-white lacquered steel. We softened this angular rigour with rope woven around the bars.
A nautical reference, reinterpreting a boat’s lines?
An echo of the owner’s athletic past and the ropes supporting his favourite apparatus, the rings?
Or a practical way of addressing the spacing requirements of a balustrade?
We leave you to decide.
Photography: © Arnaud Rinuccini