Where in Paris is the apartment?
The apartment is located in the north of Paris, in the 19th arrondissement. Positioned between the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and the Canal de l’Ourcq, it benefits from a richly contrasting urban and natural landscape. Despite these varied surroundings, the 19th remains one of the most densely populated and lively districts in the city.
Tell us about your client and their brief.
The client, an architect–designer, was seeking a compact retreat for himself and his partner – a kind of quiet capsule, shielded from the bustle of the street. One of his key desires was to take full advantage of the long glazed facade to heighten the sensation of space. With the apartment being relatively small, the main challenge was to craft a layout that would maximise both the living and sleeping areas in a fluid, functional way.
What was the apartment like when you first saw it? Any major challenges or advantages to be exploited?
When we first visited, the apartment was in fairly good condition. It followed a conventional layout: a closed bedroom, toilet, bathroom and a separate kitchen. At the rear, a pantry completed the floor plan. One of the main challenges was to create a well-ventilated living environment – especially for the humid areas – in spite of the apartment’s single orientation, which made cross-ventilation impossible.
A significant opportunity lay in restoring the continuous strip window – typical of 1960s architecture – faithfully and entirely, maintaining its original proportions and rhythm across the full length of the facade.
How did you proceed?
Our initial response was to open up the space as much as possible, questioning whether any zones really needed to be closed off – and if so, which ones. Ultimately, we made a radical choice to leave everything open, enclosing only the bathroom.
Rather than creating a distinct bedroom, we focused on the bed as a functional element – ephemeral and compact – and placed it where the pantry once was. It now sits like a cocoon, or a small cabin, at the same level as the window ledge. A long curtain track clearly defines the sequence of spaces: storage, sleeping area, entry and bathroom, forming a kind of visual backdrop that houses all the apartment’s service functions.
By clearing the entire space of internal partitions, we were able to fully reveal the continuous strip window – which had been obscured by the previous layout. Stripping the apartment also allowed us to expose the original concrete structural columns, which we chose to leave bare as part of the overall aesthetic.
Was the design process a close collaboration with your client or were you given plenty of freedom to realise your own vision for the space?
We took time to reconsider the relationship between the user and the spaces – not in terms of surface area, but in terms of function, usage and even objects. The client gave us complete creative freedom to explore and refine these ideas. It was a trusting and open collaboration from start to finish.
