Drawing inspiration from local boats, this house speaks to a historical vernacular while navigating contemporary material and economical challengesThis project was shortlisted in the 2024 AR House awards. Read about the full shortlist hereLong before the advent of motorboats, the waters of the river Loire in France were dotted with toues cabanes. Built to navigate its shallow, winding drafts, these traditional flat-bottomed boats had high sides and cabins at their stern, allowing fishermen to live on the river, gazing at the ever-changing landscape of the Loire Valley beyond.Today, the toue cabane lends its name, and its connotations of wilderness, resourcefulness and craftsmanship, to a small house completed in 2023 in the commune of Le Cellier part of the Loire-Atlantique region. The young Nantes-based practice Atelier du Ralliement transformed a 28m2 single-storey house into a three-storey home on the same footprint.To the north-west, cliff-sides plush with mosses, ferns and trees embrace the building. We are very attached to the notion of genius loci, says practice founder Franois Massin Castan. Here, we didnt need to create the landscape; it was all around, so we had to emphasise it as much as possible. To the south, however, a busy car park and the local train station interrupt picturesque views towards the vineyards, villages, farmlands and forests of the beckoning Loire Valley.The house has been meticulously designed to mediate between these contradictory environments, with particular attention paid to openings so that they offer views of the flourishing vegetation, river valley and sky. Windows are limited on the south-western facade to shield from the car park, but they span the width of the buildings two shorter sides on the first floor, creating an intimate connection between living space and nature. You are aware of the seasons, says Massin Castan, you see the moss grow green with the rain and it is just a blessing to be so close. In the pitched roof, a continuous ribbon of windows provides the two bedrooms with plentiful light and generous vistas.The openness of the interior is facilitated by a central core which takes on the buildings structural needs and liberates the facade. From dense storage compartments by the ground-floor kitchen, bathroom and utility spaces, it ascends into a transparent staircase that fosters visual connection throughout the upper floors. On site, the core took only a day to assemble, reducing the construction time to four months.Like many countries in recent years, France has faced rising material costs, supply chain disruption and labour shortages, forcing the architects to make what Massin Castan calls radical choices. The Toue Cabane is composed of a local and minimal palette of exposed spruce structures, pine plywood for the inner walls, chestnut for the new floors and wicker reeds across the facade. The wicker reed panels, commonly used as fences in the local area, are cheap and easily found in the local supermarket. The construction cost a mere 170,000 and its maintenance will be similarly economical.In its simplicity, materiality and wonder at the Loire, life in the Toue Cabane evokes that of the fishermen on the water. Their boats, also of local pine or oak with a thatched or wooden-plank roof, would develop a characteristic patina over the years. Today, the wicker reeds of the building are beginning to soften and silver; there is no doubt that both the boats and the house belong wholly to their landscapes.