Julien Pradignac, the founder of Atelier PA, was asked to design a hotel-style apartment in this small, poorly lit, street-level space. He began by opening up the original layout of the apartment to create a single open space for working, living, and sleeping, along with a separate bathroom. A “service area” was created with a small entrance hall, and it includes room for a washing machine, as well as a minimalist bathroom in waxed concrete with a small sink, toilet, and large shower. Working along the length of the very small apartment, Pradignac created storage space above the apartment’s installations to free up as much floor space as possible. This allowed him to also create a long, custom-made unit that serves as a kitchen, worktop, and even a small impromptu home office—with a cabinet front that doubles as a desktop when propped into place. There’s also a drawer that doubles as an ironing board.
Previously, a mezzanine level broke up the volume with its beautiful high ceiling, making the space feel smaller. An ingenious pulley system, however, created more space by allowing the apartment’s bed to be raised to the ceiling when no one is using it. This changes the use of the space allowing the owner to keep a sofa in the room, thanks to wooden stops in the wall (higher than the sofa) on which the bed rests when it is lowered. The tedious task of moving a bed or setting up and then breaking down a sofa bed twice a day has been eliminated. “The inspiration came from laundry lines that can be easily moved into place when they are being used and then just as easily put away. It allowed us to think about the bed from a technical standpoint. But we were also inspired by the iconic fishing nets used in the estuaries of France’s Loire, Charente, and Gironde rivers with their pulley systems.” From this deceptively simple brief, the bed becomes an attractive feature of the unit, thanks in part to the playful aspect of how it is operated, but also because of the way it discreetly disappears. In keeping with the small space, the problem of storage is solved by the large kitchen unit and the cupboards that extend up to the ceiling on the entrance and bathroom sides. The approach here is simple—no clutter is allowed.
Pradignac is known for his use of fine materials that engage with the beauty of Paris and the visual contexts of his projects. In this apartment, stone from Burgundy covers an electric underfloor heating system and the material is ideal for retaining heat. The heating system maximizes the use of space as there are no radiators in the apartment. There’s also an added bonus in terms of comfort: You can walk around barefoot and always feel warm. The kitchen cabinets and the mobile step stool used to access the bed and the high storage units in the living room are made from a wood that the architect regularly uses in his projects: okoumé plywood, which he stains and varnishes to give it a more decorative, glossy appearance, reminiscent of a designer sideboard. He combined it with a stainless-steel worktop for its ability to reflect light throughout the apartment, as does the very light-colored stone floor. The walls are white to maximize the natural light coming in from the apartment’s sole window. “It was almost a given that we had to paint the walls white; there aren’t many options for getting more natural light into a space. However, the owner wanted the bathroom to be a slightly darker space with soft lighting and a more subdued atmosphere in the morning.” The natural light in the bathroom is softened as it passes through a fluted glass door.
The bathroom’s design is also a way of adding a touch of color without impacting the natural light in the rest of the small apartment. It’s like a grotto or a hidden discovery, a secret behind a translucent door. The color is similar to okoumé, but with a little more bronze and applied to waxed concrete that has been textured so it has a highly reflective, lacquered effect.
Finally, there’s nothing fussy about this apartment. Beyond the formally more complex arched entrance, Pradignac’s approach is one of almost radical simplicity, though a simplicity paired with elegance thanks to the varnished okoumé veneer, the stone from Burgundy, small arched niches, and the woven pouf. The palette of raw, natural materials lends an undeniable cachet to the space. On an okoumé shelf, a painting by Julien Vermeulen (who is a plumassier, an artist who creates works from feathers) stands alongside an Ettore Sottsass salt and pepper shaker. Somewhere between a guest room and a small hotel suite, Atelier PA has created an ingenious and endearing little space.
This small, hotel-style apartment was originally published in AD France.
