Marc Lombard is a naval architect and his name bears remembrance of legendary yachts which made sailing history: The Figaro 2 racing yacht (read the interview with Marc here), his works for Jeanneau´s Sun Odyssey, aluminium alloy boats for Alubat, Futuna, superyachts JFA, cruising cats from Privilege, Nautitech and of course his racing boats, from IMOCA 60, down to successful mini’s and class 40 (such as the Akilaria, read here), over to trimarans.

He directed me to the stand of Fora Marine – RM Yachts where we sat down to discuss the topic. It was here when I first heard about the fact that a yacht builder is making big and yet fast sailing cruisers from plywood.

Last week I happened to be in La Rochelle at the Atlantic Ocean Coast and it suddenly struck me as I was driving through a large commercial area when I saw the big RM-Yachts logo and I suddenly remembered. I took the chance and called the company and I was very excited to have Justine at the other end of the line – the very lady who was so kind to arrange the meeting with Marc during the boatshow in the first place: “Sure, of course you can come and have a visit at our yard. We would be delighted!”, she said and offered me her company to show me around. That was my lucky day.
Plywood as an ideal material for building boats
Why is it such a news that there is a company making sailing yachts from plywood? Boats and ships have been made from timber for many hundred years before: Mankind´s first boats have been hollow dug out canoes, Egyptians have set out on the Mediterranean in rafts made of reed, Polynesians have conquered much of the Pacific Ocean in cleverly rigged, very fast tiny outrigger boats and finally had the Europeans roamed the Oceans in huge sturdy yet fast and reliable timber made sailing vessels. But I admit: In a world made of plastic it sounds a bit awkward to have a yacht made from plywood considered to be “modern” or state-of-the-art.

When we entered the large production facility, not after the owner of the company greeted me and was wishing me a nice stay, I was surprised to hear from Justine than RM Yachts is selling some 40 units annually. That is much, much more than very renown Scandinavian boat yards such as admired Luffe for example. “We want to make some 48 boats this year”, she says, “The maximum limit for these facilities as you may see would be some 80 boats anually.” You know what struck me most as I stand in the hall? The smell. No biting GRP polystyrene-odors but the fine smell of wood. Very nice.

​Making a plywood sailing yacht is – not unlike the building of a GRP boat – a lot of hand labor. When I was visiting the yard it was bristling with people. What I liked a lot was the fact that I equally saw young people working here as well as elder craftsmen which is a sign of a good healthy workforce and the ensuring of knowledge transition between the generations. There appeared to be no pressure here – people did their work thoroughly, I often saw them putting away the tools to intensively check on the outcome. All of the male workers of course found their time to greet Justine with French bisous as well.
Making the structural skeleton of the sailing yacht
“We have no molds to make a yacht´s hull”, Justine explains as we stand in front of a huge construction made of thick plywood: “That´s the negative model of the hull and the equivalent to the GRP-mold if you want. The craftsmen will put the pre-cut parts in a certain manner to a certain place and thus form the skeleton of the hull.” I get closer to watch: First they will put in the bulkheads. Then stringers and ribs will be complemented. The longitudinal parts such as stringers will be put in place as well. “It´s a giant puzzle!”, I said and she nods, smiling.

This forgotten stable in the Spanish province of Cáceres was converted into a vacation rental that takes full advantage of its geography in order to ensure energy efficiency.Because the original stable was in such bad shape, it had to be resurrected from scratch. The team at Madrid-based studio Ábaton Arquitectura took on the job. 

They demolished the dilapidated stable, but reused many of the materials—including old stones, iron beams, and a mixture of cement and local stone—to rebuild a much sturdier structure with similar dimensions.

Because the house is sited on a hill and located below two streams that flow down from a mountain, the architects built a courtyard on the downward sloping side. They incorporated a stone water fountain in this courtyard to collect the pure water, which flows year-round from the two streams.

Available for rent through Urlaubsarchitektur, this house makes the most of its heritage and site, and would make a great eco-friendly escape for a large group. 

A new home replenishes Quebec’s vanishing stock of farmhouses.When a Toronto couple with shared interests in land conservation and craftsmanship approached Lee and Macgillivray Architecture Studio (LAMAS) to build a new home on their 200-acre property in North Hatley, Quebec, a fertile partnership took root. The couple, an artist and a farmer, had bought the land—originally two adjacent farms—15 years earlier and wanted to replace the derelict homestead on one of them with a new house now that they had retired and were spending more time there. While attending a dinner party in North Hatley, the couple were delighted to learn that their hosts’ son, James Macgillivray, was a Princeton-and Harvard-trained architect.

The timing was perfect for everyone, as Macgillivray had recently left Peter Gluck and Partners in New York to launch his own studio with his partner, Vivian Lee, and was looking for opportunities to build their reputation. "It was our first project from the ground up, our first baby as a company," Lee says. "It was all we would think about when we weren’t teaching." 

It was this process that led them to the realization that the house would best take advantage of the views, the prevailing wind, and the movements of the sun if it adopted a more circular form. "It seemed like this ‘eureka’ moment, where we had this pinwheel," Lee recalls. The final structure expresses typical farmhouse elements in new ways, with its three connected buildings circling around a central courtyard so that the windows often align to frame the landscape through other interior views. The result is a building that looks largely traditional from the exterior, but whose modern interior produces a mesmerizing telescoping effect.

For a site just outside of San Francisco, American studio Faulkner Architects has created a family residence clad in Corten steel panels and shaded by large oak trees. The residence, called Miner Road, is located in the town of Orinda, on a gently sloping site at the base of the Oakland Hills. The property encompasses nearly eight acres (three hectares), and is blanketed with rich green foliage and native oak trees. The three-bedroom home was designed for a couple with two young sons, who wanted a distinctive home imbued with an environmental ethic.
"They wanted to construct a house that was deeply ecologically site-specific, energy-efficient, and had a strong design identity," said Faulkner Architects, a studio based in Truckee, California. To inform the design, the team drew from a "dense observation of the landscape, climate, culture, and existing uses and patterns of the site". The footprint of the new residence was influenced by an ageing house that once stood on the property. The team retained a large fireplace from the old dwelling, which was wrapped in concrete and serves as a major structural element and visual anchor.
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The hillside was left open and natural. The home is shaded by mature oak trees, which were integral to the design.
"Those big trees felt like refuge before we even built anything," said architect Greg Faulkner. "They're a free material that became part of the house."

The home is entered from the north, where a covered walkway leads to the front door. Inside, one finds light-filled rooms with high ceilings and views of the landscape.
Providing a strong connection to the outdoors was a guiding concern for the architect. In the main living area, a 12-foot-wide (3.6-metre) retractable glass wall opens onto a patio and garden.

The home recently won a design award from the California chapter of the AIA. Other winners included the Alamo Square Residence by Jensen Architects, which involved updating a historic Victorian residence in San Francisco.
Photography is by Joe Fletcher Photography.