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