A word from the architect

The Æssea project immediately inspired us as a series of challenges to meet.

First, we had to respect the place’s environment, starting with the tall cedars around which we had to build without disturbing their roots.

Second, we had to respect the place’s history: the Côte Pavée district of Toulouse has a distinct soul that we had to understand and incorporate to carry out the project. The traditional appearance here guided our choice of materials and our choice of teams familiar with particular building techniques.

Yet we also had to respect lives. When you design a house, you have to first think about the people who are going to live in it. Æssea is for families with modern lifestyles who are convinced that comfort, aesthetics and modernity are important values to uphold – on condition that you factor in energy efficiency and the global impact of energy use.

Last, we had to respect a taste for bare essentials, which is an integral part of Æssea. This prompted us to imagine fluid lines, simple forms and plain spaces. That is how this particular brand of minimalism became our ultimate degree of sophistication in architecture.

So the combination of all these restrictions made our project really exciting. We quickly realised that Æssea’s ethos went hand in hand with our own and that we could give free reign to our creativity without compromising on our most fundamental principles. We were therefore very proud to sign a deal to renovate Terra and design three new developments: Aqua, Ignis and Aera.

Laurent Bonnet