La Maison Basse
A long-form story about Savannah College of Art and Design’s revitalization of a 16th-century farmhouse in Lacoste, France.
Problem Statement
Business goal: Raise awareness of SCAD’s commitment to their students, the importance of culture, and the resurrection of La Maison Basse.
My role: UX Design and Developer
My objective: Transform the story into a responsive one-page website
Project timeline: 4 months
Team: UXD, Copywriter
Built for: Savannah College of Art and Design
The story begins in 16c.
Phase 1: Discovery
SCAD is no stranger to historic preservation, and La Maison Basse is, by far, its most notable revitalization project. The story of resurrecting the building from ruins was in slideshows, countless articles, interviews, a book, etc... Still, it needed to exist within the context of scad.edu to convey their commitment to students and education. This is where my research would begin. How might we tell the story that began in 16c for today’s audience?
Research Methods
Interviewed SCAD staff for insights into their vision
Interviewed Lacoste historians that helped guide the project
Gathered existing audio and video of the renovation
Researched pre-renovation photographs to get a sense of the visual story we would need to tell
Explored development frameworks to build a bespoke responsive website
“Maison Basse has always held an important place in our hearts. From the perspective of the village, it’s the focal point of the valley. From the perspective of time, it’s a cultural touchstone and a memorial to our history. Now, this regional treasure has risen from ruin.”
Phase 2: Define
Now that I had assets from the discovery phase, I began to align the learnings into sections and pullout quotes to get a birds-eye view of the story. Working with the copywriter, we proposed aligning the story to a timeline beginning centuries before the La Maison Basse was built and ending with a “wow moment” in the style of a big reveal.
This timeline proposal would place the renovation within the context of France’s history to magnify the project’s significance.
“When we walked down the hillside from Lacoste to Maison Basse, we were walking on several thousand-year-old Roman stone road.”
La Via Domitia, the first paved road for trade, passed through the Luberon Valley.
Phase 3: Develop
With a through-line and vision in place, it was time to visualize the story and bring the author’s work to life. I began by experimenting with timelines to connect the history and chapters of the story together.
Ultimately, the radio dial concept was too limiting, and I abandoned the idea for a more “table of contents” style to match a chapter/book vibe.
Rough sketches for potential timelines and detail sections.
Timeline designed in a previous project was my inspiration
Visualizing History
A compelling story was not enough to encapsulate the magnitude of such a dramatic revitalization. I went with an interactive before and after treatment to visualize the level of detail that went into maintaining the integrity of the space while displaying SCAD’s design skills.
This solution worked on both desktop and mobile devices.
Above: Screenshot of before and after interaction. Below: Screenshot of a pulled quote and video section.
At the end of the day, La Maison Basse was for the students — and Lacoste, France — and it was imperative that the students share Maison Basse’s influence during their time in SCAD Lacoste.
I pulled images from SCAD’s Instagram account to showcase the space from a student’s point of view. These assets could be changed out as the semesters progressed to continue the story.