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RESIDENTIAL - PARIS
FOREST IN THE CITY
Extension and renovation of a garden-level apartment ·140 sqm

Sleeping with no one above your head. Seeing the garden from your bathtub. Feeling like you're living in a house. This project was born from simple yet profound desires - those of inhabitants who wanted to experience their apartment differently, closer to nature even in the city, more rooted in their space.

The garden extension was an opportunity to rethink the organisation of the spaces, working with views and maximising natural light - the new living area and master suite both facing North.

An apartment that breathes

To create a connection with the garden, the roof extends beyond the large glass doors. A simple architectural gesture with an immediate effect: interior and exterior share the same horizon. The floor, too, crosses the threshold and continues outside in natural stone, creating a sheltered space with a dual purpose - a passage to and from the bike storage, and a transitional space where one lingers between two worlds, neither fully inside nor fully outside.

One space, different levels

Between the existing apartment and the extension, a few steps - a slight change in level that changes everything. On one side, the kitchen and dining room in the existing volume. On the other, the new living room, lower, closer to the garden below. This split level defines two distinct atmospheres within the same generous volume, without ever separating them. Above all, it brings the body physically closer to the green, the living. Descending these steps is a shift in state of mind. The space is not just seen - it is felt.

A considered journey to expand the space

A circular flow connects the living room, the master suite, the bathroom and the kitchen-dining room. A layout principle that offers multiple circulation routes within the same space. You no longer pass through the apartment - you inhabit it fully. This fluidity expands the perception of the volumes and gives each room the sense of belonging to something larger than itself.

The kitchen and dining room are one, with no overhead cupboards but a long walnut shelf running the full length for artwork and decorative objects - a living space as much as a kitchen, open and convivial.

The master bathroom was conceived as a hotel suite. Semi-open onto the bedroom, which itself looks onto the garden, natural light and greenery filter through effortlessly - a true luxury in the heart of the city.

Preserving rather than replacing

The original solid oak parquet floor was preserved, sanded and satin-varnished to restore a subtle sheen, then extended across the newly opened surfaces. The transition between eras is written in the materials: a natural stone-effect ceramic tile dresses the steps and the platform of the split level. On the ceiling, a strong colour unifies the original mouldings and the false ceiling of the former corridor, while the walls remain light.

Here, little is custom-made apart from the kitchen. The apartment is inhabited by objects found, collected and loved over the years, each waiting to find its place: the Sesann sofa bought at the Saint-Ouen flea market twenty years before its re-edition, the Jingzi ceiling light by Herzog & de Meuron found in a warehouse, and the MECA Paradise rug designed by the studio. Every piece of furniture, every object has a story. Together, they give the space its soul.

An apartment open to the garden, where old and new cohabit naturally. An apartment that feels like a home. A place that restores every day.

In collaboration with Bureau Forme Architects