The owners of a 237-square-foot Paris apartment on Rue de la Bûcherie, separated from the cathedral of Notre-Dame only by the Seine, had a vision for their humble space: It would be a perfect pied-à-terre for young Americans studying in the city. The space consisted of only one room with a long hallway and, at the end, the kitchen. “It was bold of them to want to do something with it,” states architect Pauline Borgia of Atelier Steve. “Our initial reaction was to say to ourselves, ‘This very small, poor space has no redeeming qualities except its high ceilings and the small terrace it overlooks. It will need to be programmed very precisely to make it comfortable.’”
Their goal was to fit a welcoming kitchen as well as a bathroom, an office, a library, a dressing room, and plenty of storage space in the apartment. To do all that, Pauline decided to maximize the space by introducing a lot of customization and curves that facilitate circulation. The L-shaped plan created challenges, though. The corridor could only be slightly modified and the existing mezzanine couldn’t change much. Atelier Steve chose to play with three principal material treatments: plaster and oak in the living area, green concrete with touches of oak in the corridor that leads to the bathroom, and concrete in the kitchen where it is paired with another wood—oak with a dark walnut stain.
The effect of Atelier Steve’s design is to create different distinct areas using different materials, which gave the apartment a new richness. “When spaces are larger, we try to keep a unity and not to multiply the materials too much; here it is the opposite, with a number of different materials though there is always a link to the neighboring space.” Atelier Steve's team also relied on forms and curves. Nothing is to be overlooked in tiny spaces: a small table in the kitchen with a rolled cutout, for example, makes use of that space while the desk set against the wall has a curve that creates a smooth connection between the hallway and the window.
Storage is everywhere, and it’s all cleverly integrated. In the kitchen, a column houses a small refrigerator at the top, avoiding the usual effect of a mini fridge that one has to crouch to access. The elevated fridge gives the impression of a typical full size kitchen, designed for longer stays. “We could have made it smaller, but this apartment is designed for daily life—you can live here,” Pauline says. The storage units are beautiful too, made of plasterboard, they create the illusion that they are simply a thicker section of the apartment’s walls. “Thanks to this visual trick, we managed to provide all the expected functions. It wasn’t clear that we’d be able to do that because it is a really small space.”
Not only did they pull off that feat, but they did it with an undeniable flair. With its sometimes unexpected materials, such as waxed, velvety-looking concrete—a specialty of Atelier Steve—and light oak with white walls, style is central here. The pieces of furniture, often mismatched, that were selected and the details, such as the stepped design of the top of the console desk, make all the difference. “Sometimes we think that in a very small space, we should do as little as possible, not overwhelm it. On the contrary, the more we invest in a small space, the more we come to optimize it and then the bigger it seems, by sequencing the spaces and creating multiple distinct areas in this small home.”
This story was first published by AD France.
