A Cathedral Carved from a Quarry

Architect Michael Levy transforms a bare quarry in Uzès into a cathedral-like villa of Corian arches, blue stone floors, and Roman references that blur inside, outside, and history.

There are houses that begin with a vision and there are houses that begin with a void. Michael Levy's villa in Uzès, in France's Gard region, began with both — a former quarry with no vegetation, a vast territory stripped back to bare stone, which the architect approached as an invitation to create something that felt simultaneously ancient and radically contemporary. What he built there, over years, is one of the most quietly extraordinary private residences in provincial France: a lushly planted, cathedral-like structure where nature mingles with its occupants, who come and go, stroll, jump, dive, and swim.

The concept is continuous: a large first floor that extends from garden to interior without perceptible threshold, where volumes and curved walls define spaces through which you move freely. The pool is an essential design element, as are multiple water features. The stone structure, set at the heart of a garden created from nothing, evokes both troglodyte habitats and future ruins — an abstract interpretation of vernacular architecture rooted in the particular heritage of the Gard, where Roman ruins, the Pont du Gard, and medieval buildings form the region's layered historical ground. Retaining walls of concrete clad in local stone link the villa to its terrain, making it a distinct object that is simultaneously of its landscape and apart from it.

"For me, the real border is more than the windows: it's the curtains that sway in the wind." — Michael Levy

Inside, the same brushed Hainaut blue stone runs across the floors. Aqueous green walls and white ceilings are articulated by arches in polished black Corian — an unusual material whose thermoforming irregularities give its glossy surface an almost aquatic quality. These dark vaults frame vistas as one moves through the property, functioning as interludes between different universes of light and view. Holding the Corian handrail, Levy notes, is a sensory experience in itself. The more private spaces shift register entirely: a fully upholstered television lounge, iridescent glass mosaic bathrooms recalling the Roman thermal baths that once characterised the region, rooms without windows that feel like the interior of a cut crystal.

The furniture selection extends the temporal range: Rick Owens armchairs in the living room alongside 1970s pieces — simple, elemental forms that complete what Levy describes as a postmodernist reinterpretation, expressed with something approaching insolent insouciance. Hand-gouged blackened oak kitchen panels, matte black ceramic tiles, and a collection of decorative objects from galleries across France complete a residence that is, finally, its architect's domus romana — a place where ancient architecture is revisited with contemporary edge, and where, he confesses, he can well imagine dancers performing in the open spaces. It hasn't happened yet. But it's always in the back of his mind.

Key takeaways

• Michael Levy conceived his Uzès villa as a lushly planted nave — a continuous stone structure in a former quarry where a large first floor extends from garden to interior without perceptible threshold, evoking both troglodyte habitats and future ruins through retaining walls of concrete clad in local Gard stone linked directly to the site's topography.
• Polished black Corian arches run throughout the interiors, framing vistas between garden views and zones of light, functioning as dark interludes between different spatial universes — while brushed Hainaut blue stone floors, aqueous green walls, and iridescent mosaic bathrooms referencing Roman thermal baths create a material palette that embeds the region's deep historical layering into every surface.
• Levy treats the villa as his domus romana — a personal reinterpretation of age-old architecture through contemporary means — completed with hand-gouged blackened oak, matte black ceramic, Rick Owens furniture, and 1970s design pieces that he describes as expressing the same insolent insouciance he finds in the region's ancient ruins and in his own approach to living.