MARAIS LOFT

In a “Hotel Particulier” in Paris that had once been home to Voltaire’s niece – and later a beauty salon – an American expat wanted some space … to pace.  Demolishing the centuries of walls and ceilings we found some.  Obstructing walls are replaced by moveable panels and space is freed for paths that intertwine and meander. These panels act not as partitions but as layers that conceal a modern kitchen, bath and mezzanine – for pipe organ – that hover in the restored grandeur of the historical room.  The centuries are married through both pre-industrial and modern materials found in the facades of the Marais … plaster, blackened steel and glass, stone, aluminum, White Ash, and acrylic.  The American tells Dwell magazine that “… it is more like living in a sculpture than an apartment … the ancient beams now seem to magically float above my head … I feel as if I could helicopter around the place.”