Chalet du Ruisseau: Mid-Century Warmth in a Contemporary Alpine Chalet
Chalet du Ruisseau sits on a wooded, sloping site in Potton, United Kingdom, where EM Architecture draws the house toward a stream and its mature trees. The chalet’s paired volumes, verandah, and terraces choreograph daily life between forest and water, while the owners’ mid-century modern pieces lend the interior a grounded, lived-in rhythm. Inside and out, the project turns vernacular cues into a calm, contemporary retreat.
Flagstone underfoot, water close by, and raw wood catching the light set the tone as the chalet steps down toward the stream. Gabled silhouettes rise from the slope, their generous glazing pulling forest reflections and moving water into everyday routines.
Chalet du Ruisseau is a contemporary chalet in Potton where EM Architecture reworks vernacular rural forms in direct response to a wooded, streamside site. Two barn-like volumes, linked by a lighter connector and grounded by broad terraces, translate the terrain into an organized yet relaxed place to live. The project stays focused on context: every move, from siting and tree preservation to interior layout and veranda orientation, keeps landscape, light, and daily comfort intertwined.
Following The Slope
The wooded site tilts toward the water, and the house follows this natural grade with a gentle, two-volume composition. Each volume turns toward the stream, so even short walks between rooms carry glimpses of moving water and trunks. Placement grows from the ground rather than a diagram, preserving exceptional mature trees that hold the edge of the clearing. Terraces in flagstone step out from the interiors, extending living areas into the open air and tying daily life to the land’s changing rhythms.
Reworking Rural Forms
Silhouettes draw from familiar barns, yet detailing keeps the ensemble firmly contemporary. Raw wood cladding runs against a crisp metal roof, aligning the house with long-standing rural structures without slipping into pastiche. A light connector roof bridges the main volumes, creating sheltered entry points and covered storage that read as part of one calm whole. Clean lines, simple profiles, and practical junctions let material texture and daylight do most of the visual work.
Central Core And Clear Views
Inside, a vertical shiplap-clad core anchors the plan and gathers the quieter functions of the home. Stair, powder room, and a tucked-away pantry cluster in this central volume, which acts as both service spine and subtle threshold between zones. By stacking these uses in the middle, the design keeps the outer walls largely open to the landscape, freeing long bands of glazing for uninterrupted views. Circulation moves naturally around the core, weaving between open rooms and more private corners without dead ends or forced turns.
Veranda For Reflection
Beyond the main living areas, a veranda stretches toward the forest and the stream, reading as a bright, glass-lined room at the edge of the clearing. Large bay windows frame slow shifts in light, weather, and foliage, turning this room into a daily pause point. In colder seasons it works as a luminous retreat; in warmer months, sliding panels can soften the edge between interior comfort and outdoor air. The room’s orientation keeps the water within view while maintaining a sense of shelter from the deeper woods.
Mid-Century Pieces Inside
Interior character grows from the owners’ passion for mid-century modern furniture, which sets the tone more than decorative flourish. Iconic chairs, measured wood surfaces, and quiet textiles lean into warmth and tactility, rather than overt display. Compositions feel deliberate but not rigid, so rooms read as places to live in rather than stage sets (small personal groupings soften the cleaner lines). That balance between refined pieces and everyday use threads through kitchen, living room, and veranda alike.
As the day drops toward evening, light thins across the terraces and the gabled outlines stand clear against the trees. Inside, the shiplap core and mid-century pieces hold a steady, calm atmosphere. The chalet remains grounded in its territory, in quiet conversation with the stream and the woods just beyond the glass.
Photography by Raphaël Thibodeau
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