Organic Architecture on the Côte d’Azur: A Classic Jacques Couëlle Villa with a New Kitchen Extension
Antiquarian, draftsman, and self-taught architect Jacques Couëlle, 1902-1996, built a number of astonishing houses on the French Riviera. Made of carved concrete, they’re defined by their fluid lines and close-to-nature interiors—in Couëlle’s day, a critic haughtily, if accurately, labeled them “improved caves.”
Needless to say, Couëlle dwellings are hot tickets these days. A villa that caught our eye is part of a Couëlle enclave in Castelleras, about 20 minutes north of Cannes. It surrounds the 1927 Château de Castelleras, which, Couëlle, at the time a 26-year-old specialist in medieval relics and an emerging designer, built out of old parts for an American businessman.
Three decades later, Couëlle designed Castelleras Le Vieux, the enclave of 82 village houses that surround the castle, which is now a wedding and event space. These dwellings are Provençal in style as interpreted by Couëlle, no two alike. The owner of this one, an English-Swedish couple based in the UK, loved the fact that it’s well preserved and hired local architect Sabine Bell of Bell Architecture and British interior designer/stylist Lauren Jennings of Lauren Olivia Design to make it 21st century functional. Come take a look at the key rooms they tackled, new kitchen extension included.
Photography by Sarah Button, courtesy of Lauren Olivia Design.
Above: Couëlle was a practitioner of the Antoni Gaudí school of organic architecture, and a friend of Picasso’s and Dalí’s. He specialized in what he called “natural structures”—as typified by the lines of the villa’s hearth, which gives the room the feel of a charming toadstool scaled for living,
Above: The built-in banquettes and inset stain glass are original.
Above: Couëlle positioned the windows in each of the Castelleras houses to frame the mountains or sea—and avoid views of the neighboring villas. Lauren Jennings helped the new owners furnish the living room. To give the banquette a “more neutral, relaxed feel,” she wrapped the cushions in a woven linen throw: see Save the Sofa: 5 Easy, Good-Looking Ways to Protect the Favorite Seat in the House.
Above: An additional place to lounge is one step up from the living room. It can be curtained off and used as a guest room.
Above: An archway leads into the new kitchen, which doubled the space of the original (Jenning’s describes the existing kitchen as a “nothing special—small and squished” and a 1972 New York Times article about Castelleras quips that Couëlle’s kitchens are “built for people who are expected to eat most of their meals out.”)
The extension was designed and project managed by architect Sabine Bell and fitted by Jennings, who is the senior designer of her family’s kitchen company, Closa, of Tetbury, England. The living room’s slate floor continues in the kitchen.
Above: The kitchen has Closa’s Suffolk cabinets, designed and fabricated in the Cotswolds. They’re hand-painted in a shade called Cornice from Mylands and have Armac Martin Latchford Cabinet Knobs and Cotswold Drawer Pulls.
Above: The counter is local limestone and the brass faucet is Barber Wilsons’s Regent China Lever 1030, 1890’s Style. 
Above: Double glazed doors open to the front courtyard.
Above: The range, a Lacanche Cluny Classic, has an induction cooktop.
Above: The range hood is modeled after Couëlle originals: “A few of the villas have this style of hood built into the wall and plastered,” says Jennings. The antiqued brass Club Wall Lights are from Jim Lawrence.
Above: The downstairs WC has its original tiles and marble shelf. Jennings introduced a painted antique sideboard as a vanity mounted with a stone basin.
Above: Most meals are eaten outdoors.
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