Appartement La Bâtiaz
The building, erected in 1964, finds itself confronted with the housing reality of 2019. Its introverted typology, rigorously compartmentalising every room, faces the needs of contemporary ways of living that no longer require a rigid delimitation between spaces. The apartment thus questions the way its inhabitants live — two people cohabiting who, as a result, experience the thresholds of their home more flexibly.
The typology aims to create a spatial generosity that benefits from a fluidity between the rooms. The intervention therefore consists of opening up the existing structure as much as possible. A spatial continuum is thus developed, generating a diagonal of about 11 m, along which the daytime programmes are articulated while being bathed in light.
The dwelling also adopts a sober and elegant materiality to give residents the opportunity to appropriate it freely. Only certain elements likely to confer on the apartment its domestic status survive. The continuous wooden parquet running between all the rooms affirms this characteristic while reinforcing the subtle link between the spaces. This operation thus brings out the potential of an utterly ordinary place in order to transform it into a bright and accommodating living space.