Villa Dall'Ava / OMA | Classics On Architecture Lab

Architects: OMA, Rem Koolhaas
Area: 1,350 m² (14,531 ft²)
Year: 1991
Photography: OMA, Hans Werlemann, Peter Aaron, Esto, Milena Kubiszová, WikiArquitectura, architecture-history.org
Design Team: Rem Koolhaas, Xaveer de Geyter, Jeroen Thomas
Site Supervision: Loïc Richalet
Landscape: Yves Brunier
Interior Consultant: Petra Blaisse
Structural Engineer: Marc Mimram
Contractor: Entreprise Mare
Client: Mr. and Mrs. Boudet
City: Saint-Cloud
Country: France

Villa dall’Ava, a single-family residence designed by OMA and Rem Koolhaas in Saint-Cloud, France, organizes family life through a glass communal level, two independent upper apartments, a rooftop swimming pool, and a sloping garden overlooking Paris and was completed in 1991. The 1,350 m² residence occupies a 650 m² hillside site descending toward the Seine, Bois de Boulogne, and the city. The clients requested separate apartments for themselves and their daughter, shared living and dining spaces, and a swimming pool positioned to capture distant views toward Paris and the Eiffel Tower. OMA divided the property into three longitudinal zones containing the garden, house, and street-level garage and access. A long concrete wall establishes the principal axis, while the communal spaces occupy a transparent pavilion at garden level. Two upper residential volumes extend in opposing directions above this base and preserve independence between the family quarters. Corrugated metal cladding, strip windows, slender steel columns, transparent and sandblasted glass, plywood, concrete, and lacquered metal distinguish the different architectural layers. The rooftop pool occupies the central volume between the two apartments and extends the house toward the distant skyline. Villa dall’Ava develops references to twentieth-century Modernism through pilotis, horizontal windows, roof occupation, structural independence, and open planning while deliberately shifting their conventional order.

Villa dall'ava / oma | classics on architecture lab

Villa dall’Ava occupies a narrow residential plot in Saint-Cloud, approximately nine kilometers west of central Paris. The site slopes toward the Seine and Bois de Boulogne and is surrounded by nineteenth-century houses, garden walls, trees, and established vegetation.

OMA treated the site as a bounded exterior room and divided it into three principal strips. One accommodates the garden, another contains the main volume of the residence, and the third provides street-level access to the garage. Existing vegetation toward the rear of the property was retained, preserving the planted character of the site.

The house rises from the lower entrance and garage toward the garden and roof. A longitudinal concrete wall organizes much of the composition and provides a stable reference against the shifting volumes, ramps, glazing, and projecting upper apartments.

The communal areas occupy the central glass pavilion at garden level. Living and dining spaces extend visually into the landscape through broad sliding glass panels that can open toward the garden, reducing the distinction between interior and exterior.

Transparency is controlled rather than uniform. The south facade combines clear and sandblasted glass to admit light while screening portions of the living area. A thickened plywood partition along the north side conceals domestic spaces while leaving circulation visible between the timber surface and exterior glazing.

The kitchen sits within the open communal level but remains partly concealed behind a curved translucent enclosure. Its placement preserves the continuity of the living and dining area while separating service functions from direct exterior views.

Circulation develops through ramps, stairs, and changes in level rather than through a conventional corridor system. A narrow concrete ramp links the entrance with the garden level, while cantilevered steps rise from the communal space toward the private accommodation above.

The two upper apartments provide separate quarters for the parents and their daughter. Each volume projects beyond the central pavilion and occupies a different position relative to the garden and street, giving the two parts a degree of independence while maintaining their relationship to the shared spaces below.

OMA returned to the relationship between shared and independent living at Maison Bordeaux. There, a moving platform connects the floors; at Villa dall’Ava, the two separate apartments meet through the communal level and roof landscape.

Corrugated metal cladding reinforces the autonomy of the upper volumes. One apartment uses an aluminum finish, while the other carries a reddish copper-lacquered surface, with horizontal corrugations and continuous cladding across walls and soffits strengthening the reading of each apartment as a complete volume. Bands of strip windows interrupt these surfaces, while bathrooms occupy enclosed rectangular volumes set back from the exterior, allowing the primary rooms to maintain longer horizontal views toward the landscape and city.

Slender steel columns painted in black and gray support the projecting upper volumes. Their varied placement contrasts with the heavier concrete wall and reinforces the impression that the apartments hover above the transparent communal level and garden.

The rooftop swimming pool occupies the central portion of the composition between the upper apartments, extending the domestic program into the roof through terraces and open-air space. Its water surface sits close to roof level, while the limited visual presence of conventional edge protection reinforces the horizontal relationship between pool, roof, and skyline. Views from this level reach toward Paris and the Eiffel Tower, fulfilling one of the principal requirements of the commission and making the distant city part of the house’s spatial organization.

Villa dall’Ava engages directly with the legacy of Modernist domestic architecture, particularly Le Corbusier‘s Villa Savoye. Pilotis, horizontal windows, roof occupation, structural independence, and open planning reappear in altered form, while the arrangement of displaced volumes and irregular supports resists a literal reproduction of those precedents.

The house was commissioned in 1984, developed through the second half of the decade, and completed in 1991. Its organization separates shared and private life vertically while using glazing, circulation, cantilevered volumes, structure, and the rooftop pool to connect the residence to its sloping site and distant views across Paris.