From Interiors  to design culture

- Private Residence : Paris_St Louis apartment of a young collector. The architect Sophie Dries renovated a Haussmann-style apartment located in the île Saint Louis area of Paris. The architect redesigned the apartment to create a space to showcase the art collection of its young owner. 

This 90m2 space is now comprised of one large and one smaller living room, a kitchen, a gallery, a master suite and a guest suite, occupying an entire floor of this small building. The project, which combined two apartments, led Sophie Dries to completely rethink each space, in order to unify them into a living space. Unnecessary doors have been removed and access and circulation have been simplified, so very little space is lost. 

The Haussmann style has been refined in order to introduce minimal lines better suited to the contemporary use of the apartment as the living space of an art collector. The Scandinavian painter Hammershoi and his reflections on nuances of grey were the main inspiration for this interior, allowing the perfect backdrop for the art works to take center stage, the parquet flooring and the carpentry are also in tones of grey. 

Everything fits together to highlight the colourful works of art: among them women artists like Orlan, Cindy Sherman, Linder, but also Jean Michel Othoniel, Ryan Mc Ginley, Ren Hang. The collection of the young owner RG shows his passion for contemporary art, his professional field, and he often knows the artists personally, combined with a love of Scandinavian and contemporary vintage design (Sophie Dries, Julien Barrault, Louis Poulsen, Linder...) Raw materials such as linen, wool carpets, ceramic and plaster lighting add warmth to the noble materials in place, such as old parquet flooring, mouldings and a marble fireplace. 

In addition to the owner’s art collection, Hans Olsen’s furniture, Verner Panton, Ettore Sottsass’s vases mix with contemporary pieces designed by Sophie Dries, such as the table and ceramics, Julien Barrault’s lamps, or the circular carpet (Annie Pate edition). The large living room houses a rounded sofa (workshop 55) and its matching sofa piece around the minimal coffee table. The Breche de Medicis black marble fireplace is in the middle of the two grey stained oak arches, one leads to the gallery and the other houses a niche for the works and a low storage. On this mantel, there is a plaster sculpture by Daniel Arsham and a minimalist mirror framed in steel, made to measure with a special patina, it reflects Poulsen’s suspension. 

Opposite, on the library wall, a flashy self-portrait of Orlan, challenging the accepted female canons of beauty. The grey stained oak bookcases have rounded shelf details reminiscent of the woodwork around the fireplace, a collection of artists’ books and a statuette by the American Kaws. The kitchen has been designed so that all functions are hidden in the grey walnut cupboards, under the worktop and the black Moroccan Zelliges credenza. The handles of the cupboards as well as the fittings enhance the furniture with copper accents.

 The custom-made bench comes around the tripod table designed by Sophie Dries (solid grey oak and corten steel legs) as well as a pair of vintage Hans Olsen tripod chairs, above the Artichoke suspension by Poul Henningsen. The gallery, the only circulation area, houses a photomontage by the British artist Linder. You can also discover Sori Yanagi’s butterfly stool with a black and white photo of Sophie Calle. In the master bedroom, again in neutral greys, a Danish vintage armchair with the raw carpet (caravan) and the solid wood table of Max Lamb, on it a porcelaine and brass vase by Sophie Dries as well as a bronze sculpture by Johan Creten. 

The wall tapestry of the Icelandic artist, the curtains in raw linen (by merci) as well as the bed linen whose softness contrasts with the ceramic mask of the artist Etienne Pottier. The master bathroom with its double anthracite waxed concrete basin is decorated with copper fittings that match the wall lights and furniture handles. The large custom-designed bathtub and shower are accompanied by a bench made of black medicis breche. The guest room confirms the stylish simplicity of this apartment, this general sobriety plays with striking contemporary works of art such as the photos of Ryan Mc Ginley or Ren Hang. 

There is a mineral bedside lamp made by Julien Barrault on the marble bedside tables. The adjoining bathroom is made of light grey waxed concrete with brass fittings, including the monumental shower head. The small lounge, a reading room, also houses the owner’s collection, around a sofa as well as a duo of coffee tables. - Private Residence : Paris_Rive Droite apartment. The architect Sophie Dries has renovated a haussmann-style apartment for a young couple, she is a fashion designer and with a passion for ceramics, he is Trained in advanced Technology and leads a creative collective that studies the possibilities of man-machine collaboration. 

Located on the right bank in Paris, the couple asked Sophie Dries to create a unique and contemplative space for them to live and work in, surrounded by their collection of contemporary art and design. The apartment consists of an entrance hall, a large living room, a workshop, a kitchen, a bedroom and a shower room, all of which have been created in this 80m2 space featuring through-light and oak parquet flooring in a hungarian point pattern. Sophie Dries has chosen to retain the very marked haussmannian character of the reception rooms, bringing to the other spaces and architectural interior that plays on the dialogue between sculpture and texture. 

In the bathroom in particular, certain organic lines respond to the minimalist atmosphere of the length of the space. Dries has conceived the spaces according to axes creating points of view on the couple’s collection of artwork and furniture. She has chosen to retain a raw aspect to the materials, Devoid of ostentation, the tones are natural with a special note of water green; it is the through light that illuminates the space. 

The haussmannian style has been purified to create a unique and contemplative space for their modern works of art including works by Calder, Sol Lewitt François Morellet, Vera Molnar, Kees visser or Annette Messager, as well as for The contemporary works of emerging artists such as Edgar Sarin, Vittoria Gerardi or Paloma Proudfoot. The entrance is a space in itself That disposes and creates the link of each functional room, while at the same time acting as a gallery. Its classic volume houses pieces of art but also an iconic piece of furniture from the 90S by Philippe Starck that revisits the country Straw chair. All the door handles have been replaced with Hector Guimard’s ceramic model. 

The bright living room houses several pieces of furniture by Dutch DeSigner Valentin Loellmann (Gosserez gallery) and metal lighting by Olivier Abry, both specially commissioned for the space. contemporary design pieces by designers such as Philippe Starck or Gaetano Pesce contrast with the 19Th century interior design. The beanstalk sofa in water green velvet faces a solid wood coffee table by Max Lamb. There is also a vintage stool in gilded lacquered metal by Philippe Starck next to the haussmanian period marble fireplace. The fireplace in the workshop was inspired by the work of Diego Giacometti and of Valentine Schelgel, and was hand made in plaster, creating impalpable and organic shapes. 

The workshop is a reading space but also a work area for the owner who makes her textile creations there, on a vintage desk with industrial metal lamps by Charlotte Perriand. in the bedroom, the shelves are made of dark-stained solid oak, handcrafted in the French alps. Lit by a «light object 017» suspension lamp by Naama Hofman, the minimalist bed is a reference to the one in DonalD judd’s apartment in New York, arranged in a wabi-Sabi atmosphere. a watercolor by Giuilia Andreani (Max Hetzler gallery) is also on display. the architect designed a minimalist shower room, all curved and counter-curved (masking the various vicissitudes of the original room) inspired by the greek islands and the houses of the cyclades, in which the off-white polished concrete contrasts with the sparks of brass left rough, the light fixtures or the vola Taps. 

The kitchen is in American walnut and its creDenza is in a patina brass, made to measure after being buried for weeks in The garden of an abbey. alterations caused by the soil, rain, animals and the environment have created a unique pattern, reminiscent of august Strindberg’s 1890 celestographs. The minimalist geometry of the woodwork allows the concealment of all the equipment in order to reveal only the play of the wood grain and the patina of The metal.