4x4x4 Studio in Paris

Paris, France

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4x4x4 Studio in Paris

Paris, France

Firm

Cédric Schärer

Type

Residential › Apartment

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2016

SIZE

0 sqft - 1000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

This is the transformation/renovation of a small studio in Paris. It is used as a pied-à-terre for its owner. It is an attic apartment located under the roof on the sixth floor of an 18th century build-ing. It has the proportions of a cube of about 4x4x4 meters. It refers to LeCorbusier’s Cabanon, Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower or the Airstream caravan. The planning exploits this three-dimensionalspace, with the creation of an open mezzanine and a storage over the main-space and the bathroom. It results into a diagonal space linking all the functions in a hierarchical order. Far from the idea of creating a monk cell, the studio is open to as many activities as pos-sible - eating, having friends over, working, reading, sleeping, daydreaming, playing, etc. it is not intended to suppress activities, but make them all possible in a restricted space, enabling the basic required elements to offer endless possibilities.

The studio was erected in the late 19th century and was subjected to various transformations through time. Therefore, it bared traces of its original state as well as traces of its successive inhabitants. Like in a crime scene, the past owners left clues of their passage and produced the singularity of the place. In the project the pertinent one have been kept in an act of appropriation.
In a forensic approach, I wondered if I should erase these elements and. They would be put - asfound- in tension with the new construction. This was not an act of historical restoration in an attempt to go back to an original and primitive state. It was rather an arbitrary strategy to create a new dialectic and a new meaning through a process of choice and elimination. All the cornices, the baseboards, any built-in furniture and all the details that showed poor craftsmanship were discarded. Finally, were kept the original wood floor that had the beauty of a weathered skin, the hexagonal quarry tiles, the fireplace with its « dancing » chimney that evoked an Ellsworth
Kelly composition and the raising plate as a reminder of the roof structure. The new construction was treated with maximum abstraction. It was developed as if it had originated in a blown-up cardboard model with surfaces wrapping the space.

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4x4x4 Studio in Paris

Paris, France

4x4x4 Studio in Paris

Paris, France

Product Spec Sheet

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