The house owners of a 237-square-foot Paris condo on Rue de la Bûcherie, separated from the cathedral of Notre-Dame solely by the Seine, had a imaginative and prescient for his or her humble area: It could be an ideal pied-à-terre for younger People learning within the metropolis. The area consisted of just one room with an extended hallway and, on the finish, the kitchen. “It was daring of them to wish to do one thing with it,” states architect Pauline Borgia of Atelier Steve. “Our preliminary response was to say to ourselves, ‘This very small, poor area has no redeeming qualities besides its excessive ceilings and the small terrace it overlooks. It’ll have to be programmed very exactly to make it snug.’”

Their objective was to suit a welcoming kitchen in addition to a rest room, an workplace, a library, a dressing room, and loads of cupboard space within the condo. To do all that, Pauline determined to maximise the area by introducing a whole lot of customization and curves that facilitate circulation. The L-shaped plan created challenges, although. The hall might solely be barely modified and the prevailing mezzanine couldn’t change a lot. Atelier Steve selected to play with three principal materials remedies: plaster and oak within the residing space, inexperienced concrete with touches of oak within the hall that results in the lavatory, and concrete within the kitchen the place it’s paired with one other wooden—oak with a darkish walnut stain.

The impact of Atelier Steve’s design is to create completely different distinct areas utilizing completely different supplies, which gave the condo a brand new richness. “When areas are bigger, we attempt to preserve a unity and to not multiply the supplies an excessive amount of; right here it’s the reverse, with a lot of completely different supplies although there may be at all times a hyperlink to the neighboring area.” Atelier Steve’s staff additionally relied on varieties and curves. Nothing is to be ignored in tiny areas: a small desk within the kitchen with a rolled cutout, for instance, makes use of that area whereas the desk set in opposition to the wall has a curve that creates a clean connection between the hallway and the window.