Red carpeting, oak-veneered doors and characteristic ceiling lights: the building’s 70s DNA extends to its common areas.
A (big) family-friendly apartment in north-west Paris
This is a Guided Tour produced by Sloft Projets. "We'd been living in the neighborhood for a long time and had spotted this building,” explains Emmanuelle, who now lives there with her partner Lucas, both journalists, and their three boys. "It faces a beautiful 19th-century square surrounded by a number of old buildings... The whole thing has a real charm about it.” The brutalist building nevertheless stands out: built in the 1970s, it towers above the rest of the complex with its fifteen storeys. When an apartment became available, the couple immediately bought it: “It had exactly the surface we were looking for, even if it was missing two bedrooms." Its balcony overlooking the green space, its dual orientation and its imposing bay window are other major assets for the blended family. Typical of the architecture of its time, the quite compartmentalized four-bedroom apartment left much to be desired in terms of layout: long rooms, a lot of wasted space. That's when Emmanuelle and her partner called on Sloft Projets, who recommended Félix Haudrechy, an HMONP architect. He optimized the entire apartment by completely redistributing its volumes. The main aim of the renovation was to separate the children's area from that of the parents by creating a living room, a place for meeting and socializing. The formerly closed kitchen, was partially open and separated from the living room by a partition that would then serve as an XXL bookcase. The former living room gave way to a sleeping area dedicated to Emmanuelle and Lucas. On the other side of the apartment, the surface areas of the two existing bedrooms were reworked to create a new bedroom through a glass wall opening first onto the apartment's entrance hall, then onto the bay window. Aesthetically, the architect drew inspiration from the building's construction period, which he has modernized. The five-room family apartment didn't come with a separate storage unit in the building's basement, as do plenty of Paris apartments. What would have been considered an enormous handicap by some is perceived very differently by its owners, even with growing children, whose activities change from year to year: “There's plenty of space elsewhere in the building, with plenty of bicycle storage, for example,” explains Emmanuelle. "Ultimately, I see the lack of a storage space as a positive: it forces me to get rid of the things I tend to carry around with me for too long.” And what if luxury were space? The young woman's answer is clear: “Gaining 25 m² of living space has changed our lives. Each of the boys has his own room, his own desk, his own drawers... We feel they're much more focused and calm since they're no longer sharing rooms.” The same applies to the parents: “I lived in an apartment where as soon as I grabbed the hairdryer, everything around it collapsed for lack of a dedicated space. When you have jobs as demanding as ours, it's really nice not to have to spend hours looking for your transit pass."
Proud owner Emmanuelle welcomes us into the living area, which combines the kitchen, lounge and dining room: “I love its versatility and the energy that flows through it, especially when the weather’s nice and we can open the windows. I also like to entertain family and friends here… often in very large numbers.”
Balcony Bedhead Bookshelf Glass partition Mirror Open kitchen Plants Tiles Wood
Photos : Fabienne Delafraye
Text : Claire Stevens
Architect : Felix Haudrechy
