W_House

The suspended fireplace emerges as a functional and visual pivot in the space.

Project Details

• Project Name: W_House
• Client: Private
• Project Type: Architectural and Interior Design
• Principal Designer: Florent Rougemont, Ouafa Messaoudi
• Contractor: Sarl Borges
• Date of commencement of project: October 2005
• Date of completion of project: December 2006
• Location of site: Creteil, France
• Site Area: 1,156 square meters
• Built-up Area: 75 square meters
• Cost of Execution: Euros 70,000
• Chimney: Focus
• Furniture: Stua

The wooden partition segregates the parents' bedroom from the common living spaces.

The Building

The project entailed the adaptive reuse of a small house, originally used to store garden tools and barbecue, located in Creteil- a small suburb of Paris. The existing structure included a single volume orientated towards the back of the property and opening into a nice garden.

The living-dining room is articulated around an open kitchen and a suspended chimney.

The client required the house to be made independent and habitable for a single family. The design approach adopted by the architects stressed on minimal structural intervention in the process of recycling the space.

View into the house from the wooden terrace.

The floor plate of the house was doubled by creating a wooden terrace in front of the house to provide a larger usable area for the summer time. The facade was opened onto the garden using a sliding glass window that connects the interiors and the exteriors into one space.

The house opens into a large wooden terrace providing access to the facing garden.

The bathroom and toilet were placed in the middle of the apartment in order to create two independent spaces for the couple and the teenager. Spaces are opened to the maximum on each side of the bathroom. The parent's studio is marked with a wooden semi open wall which separates the living and sleeping areas placed on a wooden podium.

The parents' room is located on a wooden podium. A mezzanine level provides for workspace.

The epoxy resin floor and the white walls provide an ideal framework for all these small and varied functional units. Electrical and heating supplies are concealed to reduce visual clutter. A suspended rotating fireplace placed in the middle of the apartment emerges as a visual and functional pivot in the space.

Credits

• Text: Courtesy of the architect
• Photographs: Courtesy of the architect
• Compiled and edited by Varun Ajani