Esparon

Labour of love

Perched on top of an ancient volcano in the Cevennes national Park in the South of France, Esparon is home to four yearlong residents. 

For the last seventeen years, we have been building a house in Esparon, reconstructing a stone ruin which dates back to the 16th century, and complementing it with concrete from the 20th century and fibre-reinforced resin components from the 21st century.

This project is born out of the constraints of the site: difficult access makes the material choices critical. All the rubble from the original ruin has found its way into the new house, in form of stone arches, dry stone walls as well as in the concrete. As bringing steel up the steep path to the house is problematic, we have used a system of fibre-reinforced beams, decking and roof to provide a lightweight counterpoint to the stone and concrete.