Binotto House—Mirepoix, France 1969

Last crawled date: 10 months, 1 week ago

Serge Binotto was an assistant to Jean Prouvé CNAM and designed this house for his parents in the town of Mirepoix, France in 1969. It follows many of Prouvé's principles of modular construction using industrial materials. The house is three-quarters of a cricle, made of 7cm thick enameled metal panels filled with insulating foam. Because the major components of the house were factory-made, the house was assembled on site in one month. The interior is built around a central masonry core that contains utilities and bathrooms. The house was designed to have radiant floor heating, but that proved to be difficult to arrange at the time, so radiators were used instead. I have built my model without the radiators. It has three bedrooms, a kitchen/dining area open to one another, and a living room. The master bedroom and living room each have walls of glass overlooking an outdoor patio that completes the circle. On the roof are two chimney covers designed in the style of the sculptor Alexander Calder, who was a friend of Prouvé. They move with the wind while exhausting gasses from the living room fireplace and kitchen vent. Other innovations include roll-up window shades over the unitized windows in the bedrooms, kitchen and living room, and a front door that folds in the middle to create a double-width opening to the patio. My model is based on plans and photos by Kevin Dolmaire found at the link below. Unfortunately, the house was remodeled in 2015 and most of the original interior features and some exterior ones as shown in my model were lost. Thanks to all whose models I have used in the creation of this one. Look for some small details throughout, and you'll even find a photo of Serge Binotto inside if you look hard enough. If redraw time is slow on your computer, turn off or delete the Vegetation layer, as the trees take a great deal of redraw time when the shadows are turned on. I hope you like it. I wish this style of housing would have become more popular, as it looks like a very well designed house. #1960s_architecture #France #Jean_Prouvé #Mirepoix #Modern_architecture #Prefab_house #Serge_Binotto #Small_house