House of Sculptures by Robert Lachance
Artist Robert Lachance designed this house in Val-David, Quebec, Canada.
Read the full description after the photos…
Photos by Bernard Fougères
House-Sculpture
When entering the house, the visitor is startled and taken out of the norm in discovering living spaces. In this case, the visitor is not the one deciding on the way to go, but the house that takes him on a trek in a space made of links, not of uses but that tells a story. A column supporting the mezzanine twists and turns to form the foot of a table. An organic beam slithers on the ceiling of the living room to explode in metal fingers that delve brutally into a wall…
Just like Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau, this interior design reflects space management commandeered by Robert Lachance as much as in an artistic as a private form. Besides the original shapes of the different architectural elements that the structure of the chalet inspired him, there are artefacts as well that belong to the artist. A stone, offered as a gift, finds its home in a suspended metal cradle in the entrance hall. Everywhere on the walls, massive sculptures of the artist are perfectly integrated into the decor.
Light fixtures no doubt are among the elements that better express Robert Lachance’s narrative and architectural thinking. Combining materials, textures and shapes, they capture the eye and invite to follow the cabal signs drawn in the space. Spurred from an architectural intervention, the artist transposes it to a graphic form, as if he wanted to literally draw a personal story with beams, posts and even ceramic tiles…
Robert Lachance
It is easier to comprehend the interior design when the personality of the one that imagined it is known.
Self-taught, Robert Lachance started with two-dimension works before veering toward monumental sculptures, combining fibreglass, wood and metal. His heritage from “Refus Global” gives to his abstract works a brutal power and organic sensuality that leaves a deep impression.
Fifteen years of practising art behind him, he turns to renovation. With his background of artist, industrial mechanic and even Mr. Do-it-all, acquiring almost all talents, he decides to renovate old buildings, from the foundations right up to the attic, without forgetting plumbing and finishing.
alexandre on 24 Nov 2008 at 12:39 pm #
i like the inside way better than the outside
Alan on 27 Nov 2008 at 7:10 am #
Love it. Pushes our sensibilities to the limit and then some! The inside is the magic, the outside is the box that contains the magic …
Greg on 21 Jan 2010 at 12:14 pm #
Yikes! The ultimate DIY house. While the guy seems to have the ability to accomplish just about anything he wants I question the mix and match of the whole. Kind of looks like he designs as he goes and nothing is planned out. kind of like he had a junkyard full of stuff and used it all in one place. That said, he probably loves the place and when it comes down to it that is all that matters.