Letters of Appreciation
Welcome to my 5th article in this ongoing series where each article is both a house feature and a sincere note of gratitude to the people who imagined it. Homes aren’t just structures, they are vessels for our stories, rituals, and sense of belonging. These articles celebrate the homes that teach us something about balance, intention, and the art of living well. Homes featured here are the reason I started Habitat Balance: the place where thoughtful design and mental well-being meet.
Below is my thank-you letter to the creator of this extraordinary cabin.
Out of respect for the architect as well as copyright, this article provides links to the original websites where you can see photos of this project and the other amazing projects the architect has accomplished. Any other project or company mentioned has links provided as well.
Dear Erwan, Guillaume and Charlotte,
Thank you for this amazing inspiration and all the hard work that went into this project.
I want to start with a confession.
When I first saw a video of this place, I watched it twice and then again once more the next day… not because it is spectacular in the way that makes you feel inadequate but, because it is honest in the way that makes you feel understood.
La Grange is an old farm in Burgundy, France. The architects Guillaume Le Dévéhat and Charlotte Vuarnesson were asked to bring it back to life. What they chose to do and what I want to thank them for is almost the opposite of what most people would have done.
They kept as much as possible. Stone walls that had stood for generations. Timber beams carrying the memory of the roof they once held. Materials sourced locally because the land around the building already had what the building needed. They did not arrive with a vision of what this should become and then force the old to comply. They listened first. They composed with what was already there, without distorting it but transforming it.
That phrase stopped me. Composing with what’s already there without distorting it but transforming it. That is not a construction method, that is a philosophy and it is rare.
What the space is for
The architects describe the result as a place capable of gathering, creating, resting and contemplating.
Four verbs. No more.
No performance. No optimisation. No list of features or specifications. Just four honest human activities that a space can either support or undermine.
I have been thinking about those four words since I first read them. Because in our small apartment in a European city with a growing family and walls that feel closer every month… gathering, creating, resting and contemplating are exactly the four things the space makes most difficult.
This place was designed to make them easy. I need a space like this! (I will have a space like this one day.)
That is not a small thing that took only patience. It took an eye for detail that most people skip past in their rush to finish. It took great minds coming together and trusting each other enough to let something slow and considered emerge. You feel that patience in every photograph. In the way the light falls through an original opening onto a new floor. In the way old stone sits beside new timber without either apologizing for itself.
These are a few of my late night farmhouse sketches… not taken from this project, just details you would find in these old buildings that we don’t see much of in modern construction and architecture.
The person who asked for this
The owner of La Grange is Erwan Bouroullec. If you know his name it is because he is one of the most respected designers in the world ( I honestly didn’t know before I found this house). He has spent decades making objects and furniture and spaces that are as thoughtful as anything made by human hands.
In a video about this project he says something I have not been able to stop thinking about. Everything for him is a toy. He likes to experiment. He likes to play with the toys.
He is talking about design. About the way he approaches every project… not as work that must be completed or problems that must be solved. As play. As the kind of engagement that does not feel like effort because you cannot imagine doing anything else.
He lives a busy life in Paris. A serious professional life full of real demands and real pressure. He built this place in Burgundy not to escape that life but to balance it. A place to gather, create, rest and contemplate. For himself, for his family, for the people he loves.
He did not hire the cheapest option or the fastest solution. He found architects who thought the way he thinks and gave them the time to do it properly. The result is a building that will outlast everyone involved in making it and will still feel considered and honest and alive a hundred years from now.
La Grange – Video via Wallpaper
La Grange – Images via ArchDaily
What I want to say thank you for
To Guillaume Le Dévéhat and Charlotte Vuarnesson – thank you for the patience. For understanding that keeping something is harder than replacing it. For knowing that the traces of the past are not problems to solve but materials to work with. For producing something that feels like it was always going to be exactly this.
To Erwan Bouroullec – thank you for showing what it looks like when someone builds a life around what they genuinely love doing. Not performing enjoyment for an audience. Not optimizing for outcome. Playing with the toys. Waking up and doing the thing that never feels like work because it is the thing.
That is what I am trying to build with Habitat Balance. Not a business that performs caring about how people live, but a genuine exploration of what it means to live honestly in the spaces we have. To find what I love doing and share it. To inspire other people to ask the same question about their own lives.
This farm in Burgundy reminded me that it is possible. That patience produces something money cannot buy. That great minds working together with respect for what already exists can make something that feels both ancient and completely alive.
That is what good design does when it is honest.
That is what a life looks like when it is honestly lived.
Erwan treats everything as a toy and never works a day in his life. What would that look like for you?
If you enjoyed this feature, join the Habitat Balance Newsletter for monthly home inspirations, personal notes from my journey, and design ideas you can use in your own space, all with a focus on mental well-being and mindful living.
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