within the Alsatian winery, the “house at the bottom of the garden” as a response to the housing disaster | EUROtoday

The letter arrived in October and, instantly, “it tilted”says Alfred Cichon, proprietor, along with his spouse, Monique, of a big home with a backyard in Ribeauvillé, a picturesque city in Haut-Rhin. The normal letter, signed by their native elected officers, invitations them to “meet architecture and town planning professionals” For “have new housing built in [leur] garden (for you, a loved one, to rent) » and explore “all the potential of [leur] GOOD “.

The retired couple, aged 74 and 75, were planning to leave the beautiful five-room cream-colored building with one floor, a cellar, a large lawn, an abandoned vegetable garden, to move into more suitable accommodation. “The land is 2,200 square meters, there is too much to dosays Mr. Cichon. We had started looking at apartments in recent months. » “We would like to do it in time, not at the last moment, when things are no longer going well”completes his spouse.

A first meeting with an architect gives shape to their project. “The idea is to build, on a corner of our land, a single-storey house of 100 square meters, with an attached garage, without a cellar – no longer worth it – and to resell our current house with 1,500 square meters of garden”details M^me Cichon, leaning over the plans. If “the economics of the project are still uncertain”the couple believes they can both build and recover a sum of money, given “the value of real estate in this very touristy area”in the heart of the Alsace wine route.

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