Coup de Coeur (meaning ‘blow to the heart’) is a beloved feature where we journey through extraordinary spaces and the minds of their creators. A portal to timeless design and endless inspiration.
“The architecture of Jacques Couëlle is a celebration of the earth. In the evening, when the day gradually slips out of our eyes and escapes, Jacques Couëlle's houses re-enter the earth to merge with it. And each morning when the sky lights up, they seem to emerge from the ground and be reborn.”
- Architect André Wogenscky
As a tribute to nature, French architect Jacques Couelle built a set of houses overlooking the bay of Cannes in the 1960s. Commissioned by a wealthy backer, the hamlet known as Casterellas was intended to be a private village for millionaires. Initially dismissed as the ostentatious whims of the super-rich, his 'cave-like' designs have since been recognized for their progressive and intuitive beauty.
Couelle, a self-taught architect, found harmony and value in nature more so than in man-made right angles and smooth surfaces. He embraced the sun as an integral element of his design, using light to shape and animate his spaces. An interplay of light and shadow transformed his creations, evolving throughout the day to offer infinite variations.
His instinctive and curious nature guided his approach to landscape architecture. The land itself dictated the design: natural slopes determined the different levels inside, while curves in the facades were informed by the terrain and the movement of the sun. At times, he seamlessly merged the untrained landscape with the interiors, brilliantly capturing the essence of both rock and terrain.
Though some imagined life within these homes to resemble the Stone Age, the reality was far different. Inside, a variety of materials—stone, terracotta for floors, ceramics, iron, glass, wood, and copper—harmonized into a rich tapestry of textures and finishes. The result was a melting pot of ideas flowing seamlessly into a cohesive, organic whole.
Impactful, intuitive, modern yet monolithic, Couelle’s designs remain at one with their surroundings. They are reborn each morning in the light of day and merge again with the earth at night.
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Photography — Christophe Coënon for AD France
Design — Jacques Couelle
Location — Casterellas le Neuf, French Riviera
“My houses are living beings; they have a nervous system, a stomach, intestines, a heart.”
- Jacques Couelle
