The loft is located in a quiet area near Port Dorée in the South-East of Paris within an ex industrial building facing onto the Petite Ceinture, the abandoned train line that ran circularly around the city and that today has been partially re-used as a tram track and converted into a long thin park.
The entrance to the building offers one of the extraordinary experiences that only Paris can provide. The visitor steps off the narrow and apparently anonymous rue du Colonel Oudot through a large entranceway. Once over the threshold, he finds himself in an unexpected and magical courtyard: a splendid space that is dominated by a large tree and surrounded by white brick facades with large horizontal windows that are typical of industrial buildings. Small one-floor constructions employing an ample use of glass soften the passage from the emptiness of the courtyard to the three floor facades, bringing a domestic and welcoming atmosphere to the building. From the courtyard there is direct access to the loft, which is at a lower level than the railway. On the ground floor the space opens by means of large glass walls onto the embankment of the Petite Ceinture. The rooms on the upper floors look directly onto the disused railway lines, overgrown with shrubs and other greenery: a genuine third landscape according to Gilles Clément’s definition.
The project has been that of bringing this landscape into the house and of blending the boundaries between interior and exterior.
In order to free the space on the ground floor and have one large room that opens out onto the garden, the kitchen and all the utility spaces (toilet, larder and storage cupboards) have been spread out over the three levels and concentrated on the back wall.
The staircase connecting the different floors is made from a folded sheet of 4mm-thick steel.
The glass walls on the ground floor have been re-designed to make the most of the view towards the natural-growing garden on the slopes of the embankment. The windows can open completely to allow total flow-through between garden and sitting room during the summer months.
The back wall on the ground floor, clad in satin stainless steel and glass, reproduces the colours and light of the external landscape through reflection: nature is doubled. The cement tile flooring with floral inserts runs between inside and out, accentuating the continuity between the two spaces.
Client: Private
Lead architect: SCAPE
Structural engineering: VP&Green
Task: Complete (design and construction)
Chronology: 2011 – 2012
Project Data: Gross area: 105 sqm
Budget: 200.000 €
Photo Credits: Francesco Mattuzzi
