A futuristic villa in the Perche region of France, inspired by Californian Googie or Space Age architecture, has gone on sale for €1,450,000 (£1.26 million).
The concrete house was designed by Pierre Dreux after a trip to California in the early 1970s, on which he was blown away by the bold and sculptural buildings coming into fashion there.
His design was realised in 1976 by his father, entrepreneur Gaston Dreux, who assembled local craftsmen in the north-central Perche region to bring the unique spaceship-like vision to life.
Wishing for a house by the water, Pierre also dug out a large artificial lake on the 13-hectare plot for the house to overlook. The rest of the grounds consist of a forest park and collection of contemporary sculptures spread throughout.
The futuristic Googie style, popular in the United States from roughly 1945 to 1970, was influenced by car culture, jets, and the dawn of the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It was commonly used for roadside businesses such as motels, diners and gas stations, and became embedded as a part of mid-century modern style.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom villa was bought in the early 2000s by collector couple Nicolas Libert and Emmanuel Renoird, specialists in all things design. Interior decorator Renoird, having initially flirted with the idea of a minimalist design for the home, eventually chose an approach inspired by the extravagance and whimsy of its former owner.
The result is a truly unique, “retro-futuristic” home, making use of everything from a hallway ceiling of red “skydomes”, to colourful orb-like floating fixtures punctuating one of the bedrooms, to the indoor swimming pool shaped like a padlock. No single element in any room is overlooked, with each bedroom having its own concrete design concept that plays with texture, colour and light — think round Seventies beds, formica furniture, Briare enamel and sculptural ceilings.
The house is filled with a spectacular collection of design pieces dating from the 1950s to the 1990s. It’s no surprise that, after its 2000s redesign, the villa featured on the cover of several international magazines.
Renoird’s partner Libert also founded the architecture-focused agency handling the sale of the property, Architecture de Collection.
The star-shaped ground floor consists of a large central hall — complete with red ceilings — which leads to three bedrooms with bathrooms and terraces. A staircase housed inside a concrete cylinder leads to the first floor, designed as a capsule floating above the rest of the house.
Here sits the open plan living, dining and kitchen, as well as a larger terrace overlooking the lake. You’ll find meticulously chosen vintage furnishings, including a 1960s Italian dining table with Eero Saarinen’s Tulip chair, a Zanotta Alfa sofa and Pierre Guariche armchairs in yellow fabric, all under a spectacular original ceiling of wooden slats illuminated by coloured lights.
On the lower-ground or garden floor, there is a swimming pool surrounded by thermoformed glass panels to create a disco-pop feel, as well as a hammam, sauna, double garage and a fourth bedroom and shower room.
Located in the department of Orne, the property is two hours west of Paris and 20 minutes’ drive from Bellême.
The house sits at the entrance to the historic village of La Perrière, known as the “pearl of Perche”, and is well located for picturesque walks through the surrounding villages, as well as visits to nearby castles and abbeys.
