Azelle is a nurse and sexologist; Hugo a specialized educator. Long-time Montreuillois, they have long lived in a 36-square-meter F2. With the arrival of Marcel, their son, the walls suddenly came closer together.
When they learn that the apartment next door is for sale, they take a gamble: buying without knowing whether the condominium will accept the reunion of the two lots. “It was a bit of a gamble, but the opportunity was just too good,” explains Azelle. They entrusted the project to Imast Architecture, founded by Endza Zabounian and Erwan Lanoue. “Right from the first visit, we decided that we had to open up the existing apartment as much as possible to make it the living space, and make the second one more intimate, to reserve it for the night,” explains the architectural duo. This principle structures the entire project: western light for living, northern exposure for sleeping. Azelle adds: “ We wanted to live where the light is at its best!
The first plan proposed a three-bedroom, compact T4, but the cost exceeded the budget. The project refocuses on a more fluid T3, with a more generous living space. On the kitchen side, a technical constraint becomes the structuring element of the living space: impossible to move or conceal, the building’s water column is tiled and staged. Nicknamed “the dinosaur” on the building site, it has become the kitchen’s signature feature. The island appears as the meeting point, the bookcase-corridor as the link between the two former apartments, and the 5 × 5 centimeter Winckelmans porcelain stoneware tile as the unifying thread. Around it, the palette – old rose, Australian green or sage and white – gives rhythm to the spaces, asserting a soft but marked identity.
Today, the apartment is designed for entertaining, moving around, sitting and socializing. “It’s welcoming, family-oriented. But above all, it looks like us,” concludes Azelle.
