Bureau conceals Thérèse cabin in France with boulder-like concrete finish
Architecture studio Bureau has used a rough concrete finish to disguise this small wooden cabin in France as a boulder, distinguishable only by a porthole-style window.
Named Thérèse, the structure is located in the rural grounds of contemporary art space Bermuda outside the town of Sergy and provides space for one person to live comfortably.
Bureau, formerly known as Bureau A, conceived the project as a companion piece to its 2014 project Antoine – a cabin in the Swiss Alps that was also disguised as a boulder.
Both projects pay tribute to the work of Swiss writer Chales-Ferdinand Ramuz, whose novel Derborence tells the story of a shepherd named Antoine who becomes trapped under rocks following a landslide, shortly after his marriage to Thérèse.
“Thérèse was thought and built along the same lines as Antoine, creating interconnected dependencies of art and other travelling communities,” said Bureau.
“Habitation is political here, as the two shelters are nowhere near commercial or speculative routes or agendas,” it continued. “They offer a place to many outside any financial or economic considerations.”
Nestled in a wooded area close to France’s border with Switzerland, all that gives away the presence of the cabin is a single, large porthole-style window.
Underneath Thérèse’s rough concrete exterior is a pyramidal timber structure, sitting atop light foundations that give it the potential to be relocated in future.
Inside, the cabin provides enough space for a single person to live comfortably, with room for a portable wood-burning stove, a table with benches and niches for storage.
Beneath the openable porthole window is a bench for viewing the surrounding landscape, alongside a ladder that leads up to a small mezzanine sleeping area.
Exposed timber panels line the entirety of Thérèse’s interior and have also been used to construct the furniture, chosen to provide a warm contrast to the rocky exterior.
Bureau is an architecture, design and research studio led by architects Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta and Galliane Zamarbide, with offices in Geneva and Lisbon.
As well as the previously completed cabin Antoine, the studio’s other projects include an inflatable PVC nightclub in Geneva that was designed to host the annual party of the Federation of Swiss Architects.
The photography is by Dylan Perrenoud.
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The split between the “veil” and the “vault” reflected the museum’s two key spaces: the public exhibition space and the archive/storage space. The vault storage area is enveloped on all sides by a cellular exoskeleton structure made up of 2500 glass-fiber-reinforced concrete (GFRC) panels. This airy building envelope became the heart of the project, defining both the circulation and spatial experience, as well as the light quality throughout the design.
The 120,000-square-foot building features two floors of gallery space and is the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library, which has actively loaned collection works to museums around the world. In its inaugural year, The Broad attracted triple the number of its projected visitors. Eli and Edythe Broad also built a 24,000-square-foot public plaza, added streetscape improvements and enhanced pedestrian access along Grand Avenue.
The museum’s iconic veil is held up by 650 tons of steel lifts that span across the block-long gallery. The final building envelope was simplified from its original design, with its panels rationalized to aid the manufacturing process. During the day, shadows cast by the perforations articulate the façade, and at night, it glows like a lantern in downtown. The museum’s “veil” lifts at the corners, welcoming visitors into an active lobby and shop. On the top floor, visitors experience nearly an acre of column-free gallery space bathed in filtered light. The gallery has 23-foot-high ceilings, and the roof is supported by 7-foot-deep steel girders.
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