00:03I wanted to open up the space so the light would come into the whole apartment and to
00:10make it cozy and full of light. I was inspired by the Villa La Roche from Le Corbusier with
00:19the curved wall and the colors mostly the Prussian blue and the terracotta. It's a
00:27beautiful house to me located in the 16th district of Paris. My client Damien used
00:34to live in the same street as this very house a few years back so he was really
00:40amused and he really liked the idea of using this reference for his project.
00:48My name is Flore Gustin I'm a French architect based in Paris and co-founder
00:53of Studio Amaté.
01:03The apartment is located in the 18th district of Paris. It's a district called
01:09Jules Geoffrin. It's close to Montmartre. It's a very cute corner of Paris. I really
01:15love coming here. The apartment is located next to the beautiful church called
01:21Église Notre-Dame de Clignancourt. It's very close to the Metro and also the City Hall of the 18th
01:28arrondissement. The building was built in the 1890s. It's a façade from the post houseman era.
01:39The apartment was in a really bad shape with a very dark core so we had to rethink
01:46everything from scratch. I love finding projects in fairly worn conditions like
01:52this one because it gives me the ability and justification to redesign everything.
01:58I suggested to Damien a very compact but functional floor plan with influences from
02:05the architectural modernity movements during the 1930s.
02:13In the initial plan the apartment had a kitchen in one corner, a small toilet, a central living room,
02:20a bedroom and also an extra living room. The apartment was occupied by an old person who still
02:27washed in the old way so we needed to create a whole new bathroom without losing too much space.
02:33First I created a new bathroom where the kitchen once was. I removed the small toilet room and moved
02:40the kitchen to the middle of the open space. I also removed all the partition walls that were
02:47non-structural in the plan. The curved wall around the bedroom was added which lets the light come
02:52into the dark corner of the apartment. Lastly I simply designed a large storage wall that goes from
03:00the kitchen all the way to the bathroom. There's a small entrance as you enter the apartment. Blue tiles
03:11and paint were used on the floor and walls to create a unique experience when entering.
03:19I wanted to create a kitchen which is open to the living room enabling the client to welcome guests
03:26in a casual atmosphere. The kitchen island is the centerpiece here. The countertop is made of dark blue
03:34tiles with red grout. There's a round sink on one end and an induction hub on the other.
03:42Above the induction hub there's a round stainless steel wrench hood. It's like a totem
03:48in the center of the room visible from all the angles of the apartment. The island also contains
03:56lots of storages as well as the oven. Below the island there's also a washing machine.
04:09The entrance is a part of a large storage wall composed of a wide okume wood facade
04:15which hides most of the functions of the flat. This includes the wardrobe, wash basin, boiler, fridge,
04:24pantry, plumbing and more. This makes it possible to free up space in the apartment so we can bring in
04:32more light into the entrance and kitchen area. Beside the kitchen is the dining area. There's a square wooden
04:41dining table that can sit up to four people. A brand new bathroom was created where the kitchen once was.
04:54The door of the bathroom has two functions. It's either part of the storage wall or either it closes
05:01the bathroom. The wash basin area is hidden within the main storage. When you enter the bathroom and
05:08close the door behind you the wash basin is revealed. The bathroom was kept simple and consists of a shower
05:18and a toilet without any elements that could stop the entry of natural light. The colors in the bathroom
05:25were inspired by the colors of Villa La Roche by Le Corbusier. For the grout between the tiles contrasting
05:32colors were used. Red on blue and blue on red like a negative.
05:47The living room is through a passageway between the curved wall and the dining space.
05:53I decided to bring the light from the living room facing the street to the heart of the apartment by
05:59removing the walls between the living room and the bedroom. We changed the stone of the fireplace. We
06:08replaced it with a red Prussian travertine to match with the colors of the apartment.
06:16Behind the sofa is a large black tomato shelf which really fits into the lightness and airiness of this
06:23space. At the end of the living room there is a small balcony that can be accessed by the two
06:32glass doors.
06:37The bedroom is behind a curved wall. It hugs the room and softens the space inside and outside the room.
06:46The bedroom feels like a white modernist cocoon with an integrated bench on the edge of the window.
06:54There's an additional storage underneath this bench. On the other side of the room there's a built-in shelf
07:02with the bottom shelf extended to act as a bedside table. At the end of the bench there's a small
07:09shelf
07:10for a bedside lamp. It's at the same height as the lamp on the other side of the room.
07:18Paris is known for having extremely expensive housing often in a pitiful state and also with fairly small
07:26surfaces due to these extreme costs of living. So to me in such a metropolis we should assume that tiny
07:33living space could be the norm. The spaces can be made to be a great housing solution with some work
07:42on speciality and rationalism in an ecological way of thinking.
07:46of the living space to be a living space.
07:59of the living space.
Comments