5 Residential Units (with Bernhard Buchberger)

Colombes, France

Photo © Arno Gisinger

Architects: Moussafir Architectes

Location: Avenue de l'Agent Sarre, 92700 Colombes, France
Year: 2005

A private property developer wished to convert the former premises of a plumbing company into a group of five apartments whose highly flexible, «raw» spaces would reflect the industrial character of the existing building. We kept our intervention down to the minimum required to convert old workshops, offices and garages into saleable loft-like residential units, while preserving the memory of the premises as a place of work. We chose to maintain the entire metal superstructure, yet opened it up where necessary to create patios for better daylighting of the interiors. We mainly focused on the following tasks: the wet rooms design that would free up as much space as possible; the quality of natural light in the living spaces; exterior wall treatment, and the transformation of the parking and outdoor delivery areas into gardens. Old garage doors were replaced by a new frontage, while the windows on the west façade of the office block were substituted with mobile and fixed frames, their metal shutters fitting flush with the original metal structure to ensure optimum sun protection.