巴黎精致阳光公寓改造记

Architect：COR ASOCIADOS ARQUITECTOS

Location：rue Jean-Baptiste Say, France; | ;

Category：Apartments

Residential luxury is often associated to a strange idea of what quality of life means. The value of things happen to be measured according to the “nobility” of the finishings or the amount of available toilets. In this kind of configurations, a so-called luxurious apartment is reduced to a succession of spaces of a relatively conventional size that only as a whole represent a big amount of square meters. Further than this, the only added value that this succession presents is the cost of the materials used.

It is precisely in this context where our client buys her apartment: a large property in a very well situated neighborhood of Paris, with a great luxury of details and finishings but with a distribution that over-compartmentalizes the space, blocking lines of sight and minimizing rooms' access to direct sun radiation. The result is an amalgam of barely 10 square-meters rooms oriented towards the inner court. One third of the south facade is occupied by an small and old kitchen.

Therefore, the project becomes an attempt to restore a notion of luxury that does not rely on the alleged wealth of the finishings or the number of available rooms. The project lies between the delicate care of the past and the fulfill of contemporary demands while highlighting the latent qualities of the apartment.

Taking advantage of direct sunlight, recovering lines of sight and reconfiguring a maximum of double oriented rooms (to be used either as bedrooms or offices depending on the needs) are key decisions here, in the search of a maximum spatial luxury and comfort.

The main piece to understand this work of spatial re-qualification is the former corridor. After the renovations, this apparently residual space appears as an actual functional extension of the different spaces of the apartment with which it keeps a continuous visual connection. The corridor turns into a meaningful space with a great amount of natural light and a direct access to every room in the flat by means of very simple operations: the opening of new sliding doors, the installation of glazed imposts and built-in furniture or the demolition of useless partitions.

This apparently banal operation (the mere renovation of a servant space of the house) has a direct impact on the structure of the apartment: a dwelling that was rigid and compartmentalized appears now as a flexible structure able to meet the needs of its new owner. Once this is done, the rest is secondary: a careful renovation of the existing wooden floor and plaster walls, some windows to be replaced, the original design of some pieces of furniture/lighting and a brand-new coat of paint.

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