White House

Location: Kélibia, Tunisia
Project Duration: 2020-2024
Surface Area: 800 sqm
Status: Under construction

Project Summary

This house stands on the historical axis of the city of Kébilia, below the fort, just opposite the old port of the city. The plot of land is quite large and contains mature and lush vegetation. What struck me during the visit was the exceptional light of the site.

My concern was to capture this light in the common areas of the house, to bathe the living room in light without using a lot of glass due to its south orientation.

A parallelepiped-shaped structure rises over two floors, with this volume pierced at several levels allowing for targeted framing – sometimes capturing a tree, other times a slice of sky, and occasionally the old fort of the city.

To maximize the entry of light into the living room, we created reflectors on the sides of the windows. These reflectors capture sunlight and reflect it indoors solely through inclined masonry surfaces, either horizontal or vertical.

The left wing of the house, facing the road, comprises service spaces spread over two floors, while the right wing deeper into the garden houses the bedrooms.

A swimming pool opens onto the living room and connects to an indoor pool, which is fed by a dynamic counter-current swimming system. An upstairs gym will connect to the indoor pool via a spiral metal staircase.