This week’s House of the Week has to be one of the most architecturally exciting houses of the 1990s. Designed by Dutch practice OMA in 1998, Maison à Bordeaux is a private residence on a hilltop overlooking the city in France. The house comprises three levels, of which the lower level is a series of rooms carved out of the hill, designed for the most intimate life of the family; the ground floor on garden level is a glass room – half inside, half outside – for living; and the upper floor is divided into a children’s and a parents’ area. Aside from its playful use of materials, full-height round windows and doors, stacked volumes, elements and cantilevers, the most fascinating feature of the house is a 3m x 3.5m open elevator platform in the centre of the home. Designed as a floating floor, this platform functions as the study for the man of the house who requires the use of a wheelchair after a serious car accident several years before the house was commissioned. The floor moves freely between the three levels to become part of the living space, kitchen, wine cellar or an intimate library and office space. The house has also been the subject of an endearing and entertaining film entitled Koolhaas Houselife by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoîne about its maintenance.