FRANCE – ASNIÈRES-SUR-SEINE
Parisian architecture studio Heju has transformed a studio into a luminous loft that combines art, design and nature in northwest Paris. Since 2015, founders Hélène Pinaud and Julien Schwartzmann have been asserting their boldness between “architectural compositions, furniture lines and material combinations”.
While they like to mix Japanese and Scandinavian influences, they constantly play with geometry and minimalist volumes to create timeless spaces. The loft they renovated in Asnières-sur-Seine is just such a space, this time giving way to Mediterranean appeal. This 160 m² apartment, spread over three floors, is defined as “an immersive, minimal and intimate place”.
The duo eliminated the partitions on the first floor to create a large, light-filled space where the front façade and the installation of a skylight at the rear connect the inside to the outside. They also gave importance to detail with their own furniture designs, “sculpted into the architecture like organic reliefs”.
Likewise, the interplay of volumes, shapes and colours is a constant interplay that emphasises, “the normally invisible void”. The living space is thus divided into three parts: kitchen, dining room and living room, while the office dominates the view from the mezzanine, freeing up prime space below for a piano.
Each room is a feast for the eyes, with natural, living materials and poetic, instinctive dimensions. As for the spiral staircase, also hand-carved, it adds the finishing touch to this treasure of a home on the outskirts of Paris.