William Smalley has designed the Mountain Chateau, a three-storey high, 2,500 sq ft entertainment room lined in French larch that has been formed in the reconstructed attic of this seventeenth century chateau in the French Alps. The two massive central chimneys were kept, but the timber structure was rebuilt after studies revealed it to be beyond repair after 350 years of life. The space was previously open to the elements, and the perimeter lighting recalls its once open eaves. Natural light comes in at every level.
The light falling through the huge space reveals its scale. Two up-lit timber stacks recall the local way of drying timber. One houses a stainless steel kitchen, and the other a stack of boards and mattresses which slide out to form table tops on trestles or bed bases, wheeled out and plugged into the floor. A glazed shower has been formed in the top of an adjoining earlier tower. Local river pebbles form the hearth of the suspended fireplace.