Montparnasse neighborhood, more precisely Pernety, in a charming little street, between some big buildings, there was a tiny house. We destroyed it. The new house has also a garden with a rose bush all over the portal but that’s it... It’s strange, it stretches on 7 floors, light weighted, slended with its nimbus of metal lacework, it’s the “Maison Plissée”, the wrinkled house. The coolest spots are up top, we access them directly by an elevator (like in the Different Strokes show). The visit patio, kitchen, panoramic roofing pack forms a little penthouse with views everywhere and a mind-blowing sunshine.

The plan of the lower floors is so stiff that the clients can do whatever they desire with it. A free space on the street-side, a technical strip on the interior court where are gently aligned the staircase elevator and water room in little square slots. A curtain wall with a balcony on one side and large windows on the other. There is one function per level, the big black room that can’t manage to be dark is up top of the office & fitness which is up top of the little rooms with their hammams.

With this street facade completely glassed, from the interior the beautiful Haussmann-style in front is... there. But from the outside, the set of metal veiling on the glass reflection protects perfectly from the curious looks, it’s simply magic.

Technical description Let’s start by what we didn’t do! In the initial project the elevator cage was in CLT (cross laminated timber) and the decking too... they were supposed to be brought, “à la Parisienne”, directly by the adjoining. The kindness of the co-owners ended up by showing its limits and the final structure is a concrete framework, with active decking (heating integrated to the slates).

It’s in the stripping of the thick facade that the singular control of the project between technical tweaks and sensible adjustments reveals itself. The constructive solutions are quite simple = sliding windows, metal tape duckboards, mesh fixed on tethers but none of the less the whole thing gives out a form of evidence related to the project coordination with the digital mock-up and a prototype in the workshop. The spiraled steel mesh is produced industrially for exterior and interior architecture. Alike most metal tissues, this material is perennial and withstands clogging very well. Often used for less prestigious usages (parking lots, sports fields) it offers effects of a rare finesse.

The implementation is made by METALEX, a brand-new company particularly involved in details of digital cuts of prefabricated items. The foreshores are bent like paper on a height of over 18cm!. It’s the process continuity, the passage of very fluid relays between the architect digital model, a conception of the execution plans in 3d and a careful realization which brings such a controlled result.