On a slope more than 45 degrees, one would wonder if we could build, or simply hike to enjoy the view and keep the mountain intact. But indeed the point of view is tempting to dwell in, and from that vantage point, one can catch the spectacular sunset in the valley towards the west, the mountain view covered in snow in the winter to the north, and to the south, the skiing slopes equally sculptural in their ruggedness of the summer and their white smoothness in the winter.

To organize a program on such steepness, one needs to excavate before resurfacing. A couple of basements plus one will be needed before one can reach a ground floor. They will be used for parking, technical areas, but also the mid-level becomes a ski entrance with a nanny’s room, a service kitchen and entertainment/exercise room. Finally on the ground floor, one can this time frame a panorama at more than 180 degrees, simply glazed to the west to catch the spectacular sunset. It will house a first house as a duplex on a double volume, the one of the parents, where there will be a living/dining room with an open kitchen on the lower level, and on the mezzanine a master suite, with its living room that can double as guest suite, and the master bathroom with its perks. On a first floor, two twin studios as guest houses with their own common kitchenette and living area that doubles an extra guest suite to currently host one child, later their guest(s), and eventually a small family consisting of a couple and their child(ren). Under the needed pitch roof another world opens, a sort of suspended attic that houses an outdoor heated pool, a bar and a zen garden terrace to possibly even stargaze in the clear days of the summer or the winter. Given the slope, it is another ski-in entrance from the back and can double as stargazing belvedere at the edge of the pitch at the apex.

The smooth and the rough, a house made of 3 houses yet legible as one house, explodes the model of Bachelard’s house of our dreams in his “Poetics of Space” where the cellar becomes an inhabitable floor to ski-in and the attic a belvedere to entertain.

Materially, the house-as-three-houses adopts the language of the changing nature of the ground. Rough and dry in summer, smooth, wet and white in winter. The walls are made of a very smooth and almost white concrete that will shine on the sun’s reverbs. The walls are angled like the complex geometries of a snowflake to catch views and express the dynamism of the panoramic situation. In the landscape, a trail of rough wooden logs and stone terraces punctuated by large poplars and an occasional cherry tree will hike the way up to the house from the lower street, to the ground floor where it enters it, to reach all the way to the attic through a system of appearing and disappearing promenade that complements the otherwise simple elevator and stairs on the back of the house. On its way, the wooden hiking trail will contrast the softness and uniformity of the concrete with rough traces of wood, in its veins and its color, either on the walls, or on the floors, as a staircase step.

Ode to the slope, the house will balance gently on the extremes of the rough and the smooth both to reminisce in its form the prototype of the chalet but also the pleasure of returning to walk, hike and ski in the landscape of the Lebanese homeland.