Live Work & Beyond-in a 65 m2 triplex in Paris
The project is to create a live-work space for a couple in a demolished 2-story boutique with basement in the hip 11th district of Paris. The challenge is to pack as much function as possible into an already small space without sacrifice the sense of spaciousness and comfort.
Located on a side street the hip 11th district of Paris, the job site was a boutique of an abandoned beauty salon that occupied part of the lower levels of a late 19th century working-class apartment building.
The goal was to create two independent units: a flat on the first floor to be the rental unit and the rest to be the office & pied-à-terre for the owners. However, the connection between the two has been kept so that they can be reunited into a generous (Parisian standard) triplex whenever needed.
Lower Unit
The program is quite intense for a 34 m2 in total. 2 permanent workstations for the couple and ideally a temporary one for a third person, a full service kitchen, a living-dinning area, a bathroom, a bedroom and ideally an extra bed for a friend, and also the staircase that allows to access the upper unit whenever needed.
Upper Units
When separated from downstairs for rental purpose, the projected occupants of the flat will be a couple or a family of three. The ideal program is to create a real bedroom for the couple, a reasonable sized living area with a comfortable full service kitchen, closet and storage for guests and the housekeeper, a bathroom with a large shower, and in the end, a sleeping alcove for the third person to ensure privacy for everyone. However, when the flat is reunited with the lower unit, it is also desired to have an open space that is big enough for parties or events. A movable partition made it possible to achieve the two contradictory programs. Its different position allows configuration of so many possibilities. The users can choose to have either a larger room or a larger dining area, or to have the bedroom disappear completely into a cube.
