JKLN featuring Gaël Le Nouëne have renovated a Parisian flat for a couple of architects. The project is located in the 10th district of Paris in a typical Parisian building that once was used as the lodges of the Porte Saint Martin Theater and that has since been replaced by apartments.
Upon the acquisition of this apartment, the owners have expressed a desire to rearrange the space. In the past, the apartment has undergone a number of changes and divisions for the use of a single woman. One of the challenges was to retain its classic Haussmann character, to enhance and reconfigure the apartment in respect for its original identity with targeted and mastered architectural interventions.
The existing unit was composed of a large entrance, a small living room, a bedroom with a window on the street, an oversized kitchen, and a storage room. The architect rethought the plan, decompartmentalized the space, restored it to natural light, and tried to adapt the space to new lifestyles and customs. The procedure took into account the possible changes in the couple’s life.
The apartment offers an entry with a generous closet made of birch, a flexible area (library / office / game room), and a living room bathed in sunlight with an open kitchen that allows new uses. The issue of the open kitchen has raised many questions about the aesthetic dimension of the serving spaces.
In this project, the architects reinterpreted the idea of Scandinavian row. The kitchen in birch has been treated as a piece of furniture. High caissons are usually recessed flush to the bottom elements to form a single plane. The height adjusts to the extent of its users. The credence, larger than usual, leaves the wall to speak. The treatment of the kitchen has changed the conventional aesthetic while being fitted and functional.
From the living room, the owner can have a look across the hall and confront it to a light fault. A single color, Yellow India edited by Farrow and Ball, creates contrast and transitions between the old and the new, public and private spaces, spaces of day and night. This flaw serves the couple's bedroom, the small office, and the bathroom. This is the area of the flat that was entirely rearranged.
The bathroom and toilets are in the same room. The shower screen in glass is built into the wall from floor to ceiling, and the continuity of mosaics, the large mirror, and luminescent tube give depth and clarify to this small space. It makes a functional bathroom, where every inch is used .
The birch wall is devoted to storage and laundry. It is covered with a matte clear coat that retains the original material while protecting the uses of everyday domestic life.The wood panels used in each room bring unity.