Maison Kerautem, dite manoir de Lesenor
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison Kerautem, dite manoir de Lesenor, located in Locquénolé (Département 29), is a modern edifice built in the 19th-20th centuries. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Modern (19th-20th century)
- Location
- Locquénolé, Département 29, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6195, -3.8586
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00135266
Perched high above the River Morlaix, this 1965 modernist villa designed by Le Flanchec is an exceptional work of art, with its sculpted roof terrace, free-form Corbusian plan and telluric anchoring in Breton granite.
History
Standing on a hillside overlooking the ria de Morlaix with quiet confidence, Kerautem House - also known as the Manoir de Lesenor - is both an architectural manifesto and an inhabited dwelling. Neither a historic château nor a conventional seaside villa, it belongs to that rare category of houses that are above all works of art built to be lived in. The first thing that strikes you is the building's founding paradox: designed for an aristocratic family who wanted a 'futuristic manor house', the house reconciles two temporalities that everything seems to oppose. The word 'manor' evokes Breton stone, turrets and centuries; the adjective 'futuristic' refers to the 1960s and their faith in the triumph of modernity. Le Flanchec has managed to hold both ends together, producing an architectural object that is totally rooted in its time, while at the same time responding to the imagination of a place of exception and representation. The visit is first and foremost a landscape experience. The house is set in a site that the Mérimée database describes as 'superb', and the adjective is not overused: the ria de Morlaix unfurls its wooded meanders below, changing its appearance according to the tides and the light. Large windows, balcony terraces and the transparency of the structure turn every room into a belvedere. The outside comes inside; the landscape becomes a permanent setting. The roof terrace is the most spectacular and most photographed feature of the building. Embellished with free-form chimneys and oblique canons of light, it evokes - deliberately - a chaos of granite rocks, a direct echo of the mineral base on which the building rests. This dramatic silhouette, visible from the river and opposing hillsides, gives the house an almost sculptural presence in the landscape.
Architecture
The Kerautem house is based on the principles of the free plan theorised by Le Corbusier in his 'Cinq Points d'une architecture nouvelle': the load-bearing structure is reduced to a skeleton of reinforced concrete columns, freeing the walls from any static constraints and allowing totally flexible interior organisation. This freedom is reflected in the layout of the spaces, which are laid out in broad horizontal planes, open to the landscape through generous picture windows that dissolve the boundary between inside and outside. The most striking feature is the roof terrace, treated not as a neutral surface but as a veritable inhabited landscape. Organically shaped chimneys, cannons of light directed at calculated angles, emerging volumes with varied geometries - all this formal arsenal transforms the fifth façade into a sculptural composition that dialogues with the granite chaos of Brittany. This reference to the local mineral substrate anchors a resolutely modern architecture in its geography, creating a subtle dialogue between the rigour of the construction system and the ruggedness of the Armorican landscape. The materials used, mainly raw concrete and glass, are treated with a frankness that refuses any superfluous decorative cladding. The volumes overlap and shift slightly, creating a play of light and shadow that enlivens the façade as the day progresses. The belvedere position overlooking the Morlaix ria is not an accident, but a fundamental design feature: each interior space is oriented, framed and linked to a specific view of the river or the surrounding bocage.
Related Figures
Pierre-Louis Le Flanchec (1915-1986) — architecte concepteur, figure majeure de l'architecture moderniste bretonneLe Corbusier (1887-1965) — maître à penser dont l'influence théorique est revendiquée dans la conceptionLa famille commanditaire aristocratique — maîtres d'ouvrage à l'origine du programme 'manoir futuriste'Les services du patrimoine du Finistère — acteurs du dossier de classement Monument Historique (2021)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison Kerautem, dite manoir de Lesenor located?
Maison Kerautem, dite manoir de Lesenor is located in Locquénolé, Département 29 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison Kerautem, dite manoir de Lesenor built?
Maison Kerautem, dite manoir de Lesenor dates back to a period built in the modern era (19th-20th century).
Is Maison Kerautem, dite manoir de Lesenor open to visitors?
Maison Kerautem, dite manoir de Lesenor is currently closed to visitors.