Heavy refurbishment consisting of the merger of two separated studios (chambres de bonnes) into one single weekly rental appartment
Shakers Studio sits in a 1666 Paris building located on the banks of the river Seine in Paris’ iconic neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The building once housed remarkable occupants such as Elisée Reclus or Gustave Eiffel.
The story of Shakers Studio reflects the Parisian middle-class’ struggle to keep living in central neighborhoods now inhabited by wealthy foreigners in search of a fancy pied-à-terre in the City of Lights. The client, a retired professor of sociology who settled in the building at a time when Saint-Germain-des-Prés was still affordable, decided to rent out a studio in his apartment in order to pay for property fees.
Even though the principle was sketched, the route of the pipe was devised on site as decisions were taken inches by inches. The idea was to set a simple process which had enough flexibility to enable the architect to design while dealing with convoluted situations. And Finally, from complexity resulted beauty.