Quintessential French Townhouse

In a picturesque, southern French town, the local tour guide stops in front of a four-story medieval townhouse. A British couple with a talent for textile design and furniture production have brought this 13th century building into the 21st century and made it their private home.

Imagine the quintessential southern French town rising above endless vineyards with ramparts encircling the labyrinth of narrow streets conjoint at the town square where espressos are sipped in slow motion with a view to the Saturday morning market. This scene might be conjured from the picturesque town of Uzès, a short drive from Avignon, in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The city expanded around the 11th century Bermonde Tower and the intact medieval architecture echoes Uzès’ long history. Ask the local tour guide which of these buildings are worth a stop on the tour, and she will point to a 13th century stone house that was once home to a cardinal of the pope and that today is the home of Lone and Chris McCourt.

The house
Native Londoners, Lone and Chris had spent many vacations in Uzès, when they decided to exchange their family summer house outside the town with a four-story townhouse in 2014. The building is a so called ‘Hotel Particulier’, a large, one family house in the heart of the town.

A lawyer’s office had occupied the building until that point and needed a thorough transformation before Lone and Chris could call it a home.

“To preserve the character of the building, we were careful not to alter the structure and detailing during our extensive 6-months renovation”, explains Chris.

The entrance hides under two massive vaults, a characteristic feature in Uzès’ architecture. Behind the door an impressive stairwell connects the four floors and cellar. The cellar holds the original well while the vault construction hides a cache where residents sought refuge during the crusades and second world war.

Each room in the residence measures four meters from floor to ceiling, which is adorned with original wooden beams. Layers of history are kept intact with a 700-year-old stone floor and fireplaces while mantlepieces, doors and decorative ornaments date back to the 18th century.

To bring this 13th century building into the 21st century, the couple used their professions as furniture maker and graphic designer to decorate their home. Filled to the brim with design objects ranging from Bauhaus to Danish mid-century modernism fused with contemporary cabinetmakers, this vast collection also presents pieces from Chris’ own company Isokon Plus. In 1982, Chris was entrusted to continue the small-scale manufacture of Isokon pieces. Here, he reintroduced pieces from Bauhaus exiles Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer while adding a new generation of designers including Barber & Osgerby, creating Isokon Plus. For seven years, Lone ran the Isokon Plus shop in west London making it a true family business.

The kitchen
In a home filled with wood work, the industrial look of the kitchen stands out. In the kitchen, a trio of Vipp kitchen modules stand raised on legs adapted to the uneven nature of the original stone floor.

“It’s the first kitchen I have ever bought”, says Chris who until this point has always produced his own kitchens in his workshop. “But this house needed something else and we didn’t want to cover the floors with a traditional plinth. We fell for the industrial look that stands in sharp contrast to wooden doors and detailed ornaments. The engineered detailing of this kitchen is exquisite. I love the extruded steel fronts on which the handles are mounted.”

“We bought the kitchen in Denmark after having seen it in a magazine. Being half Danish, I do have a predilection for the design traditions and functional philosophy expressed in the Vipp kitchen and other Danish designs”, says Lone.

The dining and living room
The kitchen connects to a dining room where Chris’ collection of vintage children’s chairs stands in line as decorative objects. Two lamps from the 20s taken from Chris’ London-based Isokon Plus workshop light up an oak table bought in Uzès.

In open connection to the kitchen is the living room where several of Chris’ own productions have found a home: The Barber & Osgerby Loop Coffee Table, the Isokon Penguin Donkey Mark 2 designed by Ernest Race in 1963 together with a bespoke sideboard and magazine holder.

Two Spanish chairs by Børge Mogensen are positioned as wingmen on the red-tiled floor next to one of Chris’ homemade guitars.

The bedroom and bathroom
The bedroom takes full advantage of its eastern exposure. Morning light breaks the subtle blue and grey hues in the high-ceilinged room with open access to the two-piece bathroom. Here, a mantlepiece and a vintage bureau add a living room feeling to the bathtub experience. Next to the shower is a homemade chest of drawers made by Chris himself surrounded by accessories, a light fixture and pedal bin from Vipp.