Regional architecture isn’t just about vernacular materials, it’s also aspects like form, shape and proportion, height, fenestration and roof pitch. These features can be used to harmonise old and new buildings without resorting to English ‘neo-georgian executive estate’ pastiche. But it’s also about ‘harmonious variety within unity’ (William Hogarth’s C18th Theory of Beauty)
There’s only one C20th house in our village it’s also the only bungalow and looks wholly out of place. Everything else ranges over eight or nine centuries and there’s considerable architectural variation within that range.
After the early defensive structures - chateau and separate watch tower, the oldest remaining house is also the largest. It belonged to the Knights Templar who were eradicated at the start of the C14th. Immediately below the chateau (the safest site) there remain tall narrow houses (one of which is ours) whose style closely ressemble that of a 1376 house at Carjac. The C15th houses along what was the quayside are larger and totally different more square, often with some columbage and large caves facing the river. As one gets further from the chateau and the river bank (former quayside) the houses become more varied in size and orientation. So there is a lot of architectural variety in our village, but there is also a visual unity - it’s only when one looks closer that the differences appear.
Today good architects try to create a variety of heights while being consistent with things like roof pitch, and fenestration with a limited palette of colours - which in any case is the basic standard in most communes.