Un appartement en duplex, aux deux derniers étages d’un immeuble 1960. Le noyau de distribution, et les nombreuses gaines forment une multitude de points durs. Plutôt que de travestir ces contraintes, nous les radicalisons. Le corps central, compact, agglomère rangements, gaines et circulation verticale. Le premier niveau est l’étage de réception, de représentation. Le second est celui de l’intimité familiale. Entre ces deux mondes, pas de continuité mais un passage paradoxal, un escalier creusé dans le plein du noyau. Les deux niveaux se reconfigurent ainsi selon le
motif de l’anneau, reliés par un passage qui n’est ni un espace de représentation, ni un espace de service, mais une pièce de plus dans l’appartement: une pièce oblique. | A duplex penthouse on top of a 1960’s Parisian building. The apartment holds numerous ducts, technical cores and water distribution networks which forms a challenge that the project had to make do with. Instead of trying to bypass these constraints, the intention was to radicalize them and incorporate them in the design. The technical core then collects the ducts, storage space, the stairs and the chimney as a single package, freeing the open space from its technical functions,
thus introducing a ring layout for the two levels. The main level is the reception area, where guests are invited in. The second level is for the family. In-between these two worlds, no continuity is ensured. Instead, a paradoxical transition space takes place, excavated in the solid center of the technical core. The apartment of two levels is thereby reconfigured according to the motive of the ring, connected by a passage, which is neither a performance space nor a service space, but a new room in the apartment – an oblique room.
