Snow & design

AN UNCONVENTIONAL CHALET IN COURCHEVEL, FULL OF INVENTIONS, INCLUDING A VERY ORIGINAL LAYOUT.

In Courchevel, on a family property, two owners have created the Hameau de Marcandou, a complex of three luxury chalets. Their own home is nearby, reflecting the same taste and attention to detail: they have reinvented and updated the local tradition with unexpected inventions, irony and eclectic design choices. The building, known as Uummannaq (“heart” in the language of Greenland), has been designed in collaboration with the architect Olivier Gay. The small lot suggested a vertical structure: three floors of 36 m2 each, containing three bedrooms, bathrooms and a living area. The height makes the structure seem almost like a treehouse with large windows. To avoid the usual 100% wood image, this material has been used with thrift, allowing a wide range of others to set the pace and tone of the interiors: multicolored slate flooring at the entrance, Vals stone for the bath, metal railings, plaster walls in warm, natural colors. The objects boost the sense of warmth: a deer head (in papier maché), an old armchair made with antlers, and contemporary design pieces, including a credenza by Sebastian Wrong with the artist Richard Woods, a sofa by the Campana brothers, a lamp by Marcel Wanders, and a classic Ingo Maurer chandelier.