Tower apartment

News
Published22 April 2014
LocationParis
SectionsNews, Architecture
KeywordsAgence SML, apartment, refurbishment, renovation, residential
Network
Like on FacebookShare on TwitterPin to Pinterest

How to fit a 1-bedroom apartment into an atypical high and narrow volume, the roof
being the only possible source of daylight?
This is the question to which Clemence Eliard and Marc Sirvin
architects at Agence SML had to find answers to create this apartment.
The unusual layout of this apartment resulted from merging several
batches acquired over the years, located at different stories of the building. The owner,
who had been living there for some time, desired to restructure the volume and create a
home office.
The architects envisioned the space as a tower in which each level
would have its proper function: the bathroom in the basement, the kitchen-living-room
at ground level, the home-office and dressing-room on the 1st floor and the bedroom
higher up on the 2nd floor. These functions being all linked together by alternating
tread stairs, daylight coming through a full height void. The ground floor, located in
the back of a courtyard and previously lit in second day, would thus become an
illuminated space thanks to the skylights.
The apartment on 4 levels has a surface area of 25 square meters. All
details have been thought of in order to optimize space and maximize light: the
alternating tread stairs have a limited footprint and remain practical in spite of their
steepness. Carpentry and closets are integrated, the bedroom is nested at the very top
of the tower, and the office floor is a metal grid so that light can flow through it.
While conceiving of this unusual apartment, the architects were
guided by simplicity and minimalism: all surfaces are painted white, and metalwork
contrasts sharply with the raw wood of the carpentry.

Previous
Next

Tower Apartment, ParisProgram: residentialArchitects: Agence SMLArea: 25 sqm