Maison à Bordeaux (house in Floirac)

Rem Koolhaas / OMA – Detached house in Floirac, Bordeaux-France, 1998

La Maison à Bordeaux is a three-story private residence on a promontory-like hill overlooking Bordeaux. The lower level is a series of caves carved into the hillside, designed for the family’s more intimate life; the ground floor at garden level is a glass room – half inside and half outside – for living; the upper floor is divided into a children’s area and a parent’s area. The heart of the house is a 3×3,5 m elevator platform that moves freely between the three floors, becoming part of the living space or kitchen or transforming into an intimate office space and providing access to books, art and the wine cellar.
The homeowner, a person with disabilities, requested a complex house from the architect, because the house would define his world.

The architect proposed a house – or actually three houses one above the other. The man had his “room”, or rather “station”: the elevator platform. The movement of the elevator continually changes the architecture of the house. The machine (the elevator) is the heart of the house.
Source: OMA – https://oma.eu/projects/maison-a-bordeaux