2026 GROS APARTEMENT
Setting
Set within Paris’s 16th arrondissement on rue Gros, this apartment is part of a 1960s building designed by the very architect who once lived here. His own home remained untouched for decades, preserving the spirit and gestures of its author. The project unfolded as a process of discovery. Original elements—built-in mahogany cabinetry, cognac-toned tiles, and enamel sinks and fixtures—were carefully preserved as artifacts of a modernist past, not replaced but revealed.
The Story
The approach became almost archaeological. Around these elements, a calm and luminous backdrop was introduced: pale walls, white parquet, and white mosaic form a continuous, neutral field that allows the original features to stand out with clarity.This restrained palette is punctuated by moments of intensity—a deep navy poured-concrete floor and an azure ceiling in the study, like a fragment of sky. These gestures create a quiet dialogue between past and present.A shell-shaped sink, found within the apartment, was reinterpreted as a singular object and suspended in the bedroom, recalling a bénitier—intimate and symbolic.Mirrors placed near the windows extend light and blur spatial boundaries, creating subtle illusions where reality softens.
The result is a space that holds time rather than erasing it—where history and intervention coexist in quiet balance.
↢ A shelving library in the kitchen area blurs the boundary between functional zones, uniting the spaces conceptually.
↢ Insp. Jean Théodore Dupas Hippalectryon. Fragment
↢ The preserved cognac-toned ceramic tiles are complemented by a matte white mosaic, highlighting the dialogue between old and new