Perched high up the Butte Bergeyre in the 19th arrondissement, this vertical house dominates Paris. Being able to build a new private home in Paris is a rare opportunity, all the more unique on this very butte, fully integrated within the Parisian cityscape. The challenge was to settle in a family with four children over seven levels, on a minimal adjoining plot only 4.80 m large. Erected on ten 18-meter-deep micropiles, this 204 square-meter house is a manifesto for vertical living in dense spaces.
The whole project was strategically thought as a volume, rather than a series of floors, in constant relation with its surroundings, close or distant. The house spreads over seven open levels, stitched together by polymorphous vertical circulations. Each stage, with its specific shape, area and use, is articulated with the next in an intricate jigsaw puzzle. Framed between two adjoining houses, this dual aspect house receives light only from two north and south opposing façade.
On the first three levels near the entrance, the common areas are all linked and seen as a coherent configuration. The entrance level on the ground floor gives access to the living room at garden level and to the kitchen on the second floor in a common volume, where light, air circulation between the opposing front walls, and loose thresholds, all contribute to a great spatial fluidity. The children’s bedrooms spread out over the next two levels, the third and fourth floors, interlaced together with large open landings, in direct continuation of the common areas, and each set up as a playroom, reading corner or private living room. On the fifth floor, withdrawn from the façades and set between two opposite decks, the master bedroom is a small aerie lodge. This last level needs to be crossed to reach the rooftop terrace via an outdoor staircase, with an all-around view. Generously planted, the house’s crowning room towers over Paris.
Adopting a strong environmental approach, the interior fittings of the house incorporate a reduced amount of materials, mainly a series of fifty custom-made units in birch plywood, with hollow handles, cutting on idle hardware, as well as cast in place terrazzo for all floor surfaces. The central material of the project is actually light itself, playfully revealing an array of whites on these harsh surfaces. In such a clear and soft atmosphere, color abounds nonetheless, pouring from the landscape level after level, ever-changing with each season.
Comfort in this house relies on the highly valued variations of light in the surroundings, but also from the very building system and its excellent inertia. Built in isolated wood bricks, the house requires little heating in winter, and has a substantial cooling capacity, ideal for summer. This combines with natural ventilation, directly from one façade to the other, as all north and south oriented bay windows boast different opening systems and rhythms. Such variety enables for a great diversity of drafts between each level. The building system also absorbs sound and no resonance or echo come bother this lively house.
Materials used:
- ENO Studio, FAVOURITE THINGS - lamp
- Marketset lightning, Singapour Ml
- ZANGRA, lampe en porcelaine noire 001
- NV Gallery, Alondra
- Sammode, Elgar Ø70
- Fermob, Collection BIARRITZ
