Philippe Pastre designed this house in Chiberta, seven years after opening his practice in Biarritz. You recognise his hand before you even step inside: a cubic volume, smooth white render, a roof terrace without the slightest overhang, a parapet cutting clean against the sky. No ornament on the façades. Everything happens in the openings.

The main gesture is on the roof. A small, fully glazed volume, set back on the slab, reaching for the ocean over the line of the pines. That is where the sea view is direct, and only there. From the living room you see the garden and the pool. For the horizon, you go up.

The two faces of the house are not treated the same way, and that contrast is what holds it together. To the south, a full-height aluminium sliding bay, an awning housed in a continuous casing, and the hardwood terrace running down to the pool. To the north, narrow vertical slits, calibrated to bring in light without opening onto the neighbour.

Two levels, plus the rooftop. Four bedrooms and four bathrooms, one per bedroom, which is rare across 240 m² and shows the moment the house is full. The plot measures 1,114 m²: villa and pool take up little ground and leave a proper lawn planted with pines and olive trees around the building. That ratio is what you can no longer make up for in Chiberta today.

Full renovation in 2018, reversible air conditioning. A garden-level store of more than 20 m² for equipment. Three cars park on the plot, behind the boundary wall. The pool is unheated: swimming from late May to September, beyond that a heat pump would need to be fitted.

The neighbourhood does the rest. 200 m on foot to the Plage des Dunes, 500 m to the clubhouse of Chiberta golf course, a links laid out in 1927 by Tom Simpson across the sand dunes.

Seaside contemporary house with pool and gardenAnglet (64)
Price :
$3,343,500
($14,594 / m²)
Surface229 m²bedrooms4 bathrooms4

Its assets

In detail

Energy Performance Certificate

GreenHouse Gas emission