Movable curtains of translucent PVC mesh cowl the facade of this block of workplaces and flats in Paris, which has been transformed from a Seventies concrete construction by native apply Moussafir Architectes.
The apply collaborated with Amsterdam-based design studio Inside Outdoors on the 10-metre-high curtain facade, launched to enhance the unique constructing’s concrete construction, which has been stripped again to create a “brutalist aesthetic”.
“The principal high quality of the unique development resided in its impartial and generic character,” defined the studio.
“It’s this total grasp of the constructing’s construction that guided our architectural selection, from the insertion of inside components (staircases, guardrails, flooring, and ceiling coverings) to the design of the envelope,” it continued.
Throughout its ten flooring, the present constructing has been divided into 4 storeys of workspaces and 4 flooring of flats, together with a two-storey penthouse.
The basement and floor flooring incorporates a collection of showroom areas illuminated by round skylights, with an workplace area occupying the primary flooring above overlooking a small courtyard on the rear of the location.
Throughout all of those ranges, the stripped-back concrete columns of the present construction body tough masonry partitions, with the workplace given a hotter really feel with picket flooring and ceiling panels.
Contained in the flats, the same inside remedy has been used, with the uncovered concrete of the Seventies constructing complemented by white partitions, metallic window frames and easy partition partitions.
On the prime of the constructing, the two-storey penthouse is topped by a mansard roof, the uncovered concrete body of which defines the highest flooring library space, with skylit window bins created in between the massive helps.
“Our determination to show the construction offered the inducement to not differentiate the dwelling areas from the workplaces and to design the flats like workplaces,” defined the studio.
Every degree of the higher storey is sheltered by a row of motorised curtains on the outside of the principle facade, which have been perforated to create a sample of a tree when all of them are closed.
“The curtain’s undulating motion could be managed on every flooring in addition to the lighting results throughout all the floor of the PVC mesh because of the discrete integration of LEDS,” stated the studio.
“Round perforations outline the define of a tree, rendering the mesh permeable to the wind whereas additionally casting playful swathes of pure gentle into the inside,” it continued.
Moussafir Architectes was based by Jacques Moussafir and relies in Paris. Earlier initiatives by the apply embrace a geometrical, cubist-influence residence in Paris, and a live performance corridor in Excursions completed with a quilt-like materials.
The pictures is by Hervé Abbadie except said.