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Canadian interior design studio Perron has revamped an early 20th-century building in Québec City to house its studio and showroom alongside the home of founder Nathalie Perron. More
Danish designer David Thulstrup has renovated a 218-year-old canal-side warehouse in Copenhagen to create four apartments defined by “quiet luxury”. More
Promotion: natural stone by Italian company Antolini has been used throughout the interior of this apartment in Malta designed by architects Sabrina Soldà and Keith Pillow. More
New York-based Builtin Studio has helped a young family expand their Upper West Side apartment into the adjacent unit and create mid-century-influenced interiors that complement the historic details. More
French architect Joris Poggioli has renovated his Paris apartment, aiming to preserve its historic features while integrating modern design elements.
Poggioli sought to renovate the apartment located in a mansion that was once Napoleon Bonaparte’s office, while preserving its “historic soul”.
Joris Poggiolio has renovated his apartment in Paris”It was an opportunity to merge my passion for minimalism with the grandeur of Napoleon-era architecture,” Poggioli told Dezeen.
“The goal was not just to restore but to allow these historical elements to shine once more in a contemporary context, while also bringing forth the voice of our generation, our era, through my intervention.”
The apartment is located in a mansion where Napoleon Bonaparte had an officePoggioli aimed to restore the 90-square-meter apartment’s original features, which had been obscured by years of modifications.
“When I first stepped inside, it was like entering a fortress with layers of flooring, insulation, and makeshift walls,” explained Poggioli.
“Slowly, I peeled away these layers, revealing original parquet, mouldings, and architectural details that had been hidden for decades”.
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Influenced by Napoleon’s historical connection to the building, he sought to honour its heritage while introducing a modern touch.
To achieve this, Poggioli focused on subtly highlighting features of the apartment, including the grand proportions, the flow of light through large windows, and the overall sense of space.
“I wanted my design to feel like it was embracing the historical skeleton of the building, enhancing its spirit rather than competing with it”.
It has high ceilingsThe 4.2-metre-high ceiling, a focal point of the apartment, heavily influenced his design choices.
Elements like an oversized headboard in the bedroom and a mezzanine-like upper floor were introduced to accentuate the tall ceiling.
“The soaring ceiling height was one of the most striking features of the apartment,” explained Poggioli. “It immediately influenced how I approached the design, giving me room to think on a grander scale”.
“The void, the space itself, became necessary for thought—it allows mental images to escape and flow freely,” he continued.
The bedroom features an oversized headboardThe apartment also features sculptures borrowed from a client, a collector of Amerindian art, whose pieces have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Puiforcat also lent a series of bowls designed by American artist Donald Judd, while the other pieces come from Joris’ collection.
“These pieces were selected because they represent a bridge between tradition and modernity, much like the apartment itself,” said Poggioli.
“Amerindian art brings a sense of deep-rooted culture and craftsmanship, while the Puiforcat bowls, with their sleek, timeless design, add a layer of refinement,” he continued.
“Together, they create a balance that reflects the overall philosophy of the space—a harmonious coexistence of the past and the present, each enhancing the other.”
Various sculptures can be found in the apartmentOther apartment renovations recently featured on Dezeen include an apartment in Barcelona by architect Raúl Sánchez and a brutalist apartment in Canada by architect Jean Verville.
The photography is by Alice Mesguich.
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Bright yellow accents stand out against concrete and metal surfaces within this “creative laboratory” that architect Jean Verville has created for himself inside a residential tower in Quebec City.
The Canadian architect, who is currently dividing his time between practice and teaching at the School of Architecture of Laval University in Quebec City, designed the 79-square-metre apartment as a space he can both work and reside in.
A pair of bright yellow lamps extend over the commercial restaurant furniture in the live-work apartment’s kitchenVerville, founder of Studio Jean Verville Architecte, describes the project as “an architectural experiment orchestrating a space with a graphic dimension”.
The 1970s tower in which the residence is located was designed by architect Marcel Bilodeau and faces the Plains of Abraham Park in front of the St Lawrence River.
The stainless steel furniture blends with the raw concrete shell of the brutalist building”Like an observation post offering breathtaking views of the Laurentian Mountains, the urban landscape, and the St Lawrence River, the interior comes alive with an immutable body-to-body relationship between transparency and reflection, while transforming realities through distancing and multiplication,” said the architect.
The residence was completely gutted to leave a raw concrete shell, with windows on the north and south sides ushering light into the deep space.
Verville inserted a series of glass and mirrored partitions to divide up the space, allowing for various layout optionsInstead of solid walls, Verville installed a series of sliding partitions so he could open up or close off areas as desired.
These glass and mirror panes are mounted on metal tracks and bounce the natural light through the apartment, allowing the compact unit to feel larger than it is.
An area furnished as a living room contains a rust-coloured sofa and a black-lacquered chair”By addition or subtraction, this flexible system fragments the plan into six layout alternatives with undetermined functions, offering up to seven distinct sub-spaces,” said Verville. “Meanwhile, flexible blinds with a metallic finish allow the option of openwork borders, as well as total privacy.”
Beside the south-facing balcony is a kitchen, which features stainless-steel commercial restaurant furniture that blends with the grey concrete shell.
The partitions are mounted on metal tracks and can be opened and closed as desired to alter the layoutA central island is fitted with two sinks, each with a large balanced-arm lamp in bright yellow mounted on the wall behind.
The lamps can be adjusted into position above any area of the kitchen counter to aid with food preparation.
The concrete bedroom is solely furnished with a low bedRooms suggested by the partitions include a sleeping area furnished only with a simple low bed and a study where a simple metal desk faces a window.
The living area is populated by a rust-coloured sofa and a black lacquered chair arranged around a pair of mirrored coffee tables.
Jean Verville converts backyard shed into minimalist studio in Montreal
“The strategic positioning of domestic equipment maintains constant physical and visual permeability to neutralise the compactness of the unit,” Verville said.
Services, pipes and ductwork are all exposed throughout the apartment, demonstrating how it operates as a functional space.
Verville considers the space a “creative laboratory” in which he can experimentOther eclectic items peppered through the residence give the feel of a creative laboratory, in which its occupant experiments with space and the act of living within it.
“Glass vials of all kinds, models and various explorations, utilitarian objects, and plants rub shoulders on the shelves, revisiting the spirit of the cabinet of curiosities in a playful presentation of everyday life,” said the architect.
Verville frequently inserts himself into the photo sets of his projectsVerville is known for its minimalist material-focused projects, as well as for playfully inserting himself into the photographs of completed – as evidenced in this set.
He can also be seen wandering around in a cape through a Montreal apartment designed for a music composer, hanging out of a loft in a shed he converted into a workspace and balancing on the roof of an A-frame forest cabin.
The photography is by Maryse Béland, Maxime Brouillet and Antoine Michel.
Project credits:
Studio Jean Verville Architectes team: Jean Verville, architect – lead designer; Gabriel Ladouceur, studio coordinator, professional and scientific MA architecture candidate; Guillaume Turgeon Solis, technical specialist; France Goneau, artistic advisor; Tania Paula Garza Rico, architectSpecial collaborations: Loïc Bard, art furniture; France Goneau, ceramic sculpturesContractor: Nomad Construction
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A bouldering wall in this São Paulo apartment designed by Nati Minas & Studio allows a sports-loving couple to scale their double-height living room.
The 220-square-metre Musa apartment in the Itaim Bibi neighbourhood was renovated to reflect its residents’ active lifestyles.
The Musa apartment includes a climbing wall in the living roomLocal firm Nati Minas & Studio added colourful hand and foot holds up one wall in the living room, reaching up to the pitched ceiling of the tall space.
“The couple’s request for the top floor was to create a meeting place where they could welcome friends and family and spend quality time together,” said the studio.
Colourful hand and foot grips allow the resident to scale the wallOverall, the renovation involved lightening up the residence, while adding texture in the social spaces with white trowelled-putty walls and porcelain floor tiles cut into shards.
Beside the climbing wall, where the ceiling height drops, is a TV room tucked into a corner beside a long window and a bank of planters.
A TV room is tucked beside a long window and planterAudio-visual equipment is housed against a wood-backed unit with a steel frame and metal-mesh shelves, which wraps around the staircase opening.
On the other side, more pale-wood storage forms a bar that leads towards a sliding door, providing access to the glass-enclosed balcony.
A glass-enclosed balcony accommodates a hot tub and a dining areaThis area features a hot tub, and a stainless-steel dining table alongside a built-in bench for enjoying casual meals cooked on the adjacent grill.
The glazed roof and windows provide a panoramic view of the skyline, but can be shaded with a canopy of Roman blinds when it gets too bright.
Roman blinds shade the glass roof and windows when conditions are too brightBedrooms and the kitchen are located on the lower floor, reached via a flight of slender, floating metal treads.
“A new staircase was built to add more closet depth to the master bedroom, with a design that is half in depth and half overhanging, with light metal sheets,” said Nati Minas & Studio.
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The kitchen is separated from a lounge and games room by an arrival area lined with wood, into which cabinets and the front door were built.
An amorphous wooden island projects from a stainless steel counter, which matches the lower cabinetry, while mesh-fronted storage overhead allows light from the window to pass through.
On the lower floor is a games room featuring a green ebonised-wood tableAlthough neutrally decorated, the apartment is dotted with colourful furniture and artwork, including a bright-red bed frame in the primary suite.
“Loose furniture always comes in as a spice to the atmosphere created as a base,” the studio said. “Here, there are neutral tones wandering between ecru, mint green, moss green, light wood and worked stones.”
The kitchen is situated on the other side of a wood-lined arrival areaThis isn’t the first residence to include climbing apparatus inside and designers have come up with several ways to appease their active clients.
For example, a villa in Tuscany features a blue staircase that doubles as a climbing wall, while a forest home in Finland is equipped with a climbing wall, gymnastic apparatus and a net covering a cut-out in one of the floors.
The photography is by Carolina Lacaz.
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Former Soho House design director Linda Boronkay drew on her experience of members’ clubs when creating communal spaces at The Sessile, a rentable apartment block in north London.
Created by contemporary rental brand Way of Life, The Sessile is a 310-apartment building in Tottenham Hale.
Linda Boronkay has created the communal spaces at The Sessile in Tottenham HaleBoronkay designed the interiors for the building’s communal areas, which include a rooftop orangery and a private dining area as well as a gym, a yoga studio and a dedicated vinyl listening room.
“We opted for bold colours and pieces with lots of personality,” said the interior designer, who founded her own practice in 2020.
The rooftop orangery opens onto wide terraces”We also integrated vintage finds like we always do, so the ingredients and our approach were very similar to how we would work on a members’ club design,” she told Dezeen.
The 10th-floor rooftop orangery is the largest of the spaces, opening onto planted terraces with sweeping views of the surrounding area.
Marble and dark timber feature in the private dining roomBlack terrazzo flooring was paired with gleaming green and crimson tiles, which line the windowsills and a tall central fireplace. Boronkay chose a trio of spindly, ornate chandeliers to contrast with these colour-blocked accents.
Large skylights illuminate an open kitchen and various seating areas encircled by textured armchairs. Bespoke rugs decorated with bright patterns add “a layer of art and graphic design” to the space, said Boronkay.
Boronkay selected lighter hues for the yoga studioThe private dining room is more intimate, with sliding timber joinery that allows a graphic, coloured tapestry to give way to a concealed television.
“Joinery, artwork and drapery allow residents to instantly change the function or ambiance of a room,” explained Boronkay.
The gym is illuminated by sculptural lampsTranslucent glass discs were clustered together to create a chunky overhead lamp, while burnt orange curtains and veiny marble sideboards add a touch of luxury.
Lighter hues were chosen for the yoga studio, finished with “natural” earthy colours on the floors, walls and ceilings. Muted tones also evoke a sense of calm in the gym, complete with sculptural sandy pendant lamps.
The vinyl listening room was created as a “private nook”A squiggly neon ceiling light features in the vinyl listening room, designed as a “private nook for reflection”. The space is characterised by open blood-red shelving displaying stacks of records.
“We were conscious about coming up with a new colour scheme and new identity for each room,” said the designer.
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Boronkay also included a ping-pong table in the room that can be used or stowed away depending on residents’ preferences.
“We aren’t very used to designing in new build architecture,” reflected Boronkay.
Terrazzo flooring was included in the interior design”Most of our projects are in historical heritage buildings and their story and style is an important building block in our design and narrative. At The Sessile, we had to almost ignore the architecture and create a world of our own that you experience as soon as you step inside,” added the designer.
Elsewhere in London, local firm Studio Est referenced the industrial heritage of Battersea Power Station when creating the interiors for an apartment inside the redeveloped landmark. Archmongers studio recently renovated a home inside North Kensington’s Trellick Tower.
The photography is courtesy of Way of Life.
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British studio Intervention Architecture designed bespoke plywood joinery to conceal furniture including a pull-down bed and a collapsible dining table inside this micro apartment in north London.
The flat is located within Florin Court, a nine-storey art deco building overlooking Charterhouse Square that was designed by Guy Morgan and Partners and built in 1938.
The 24-square-metre flat at the rear of the building was previously the servant quarters for a larger residence facing the garden at the front.
Intervention Architecture has designed the interiors for a London micro apartmentIts current owners, a couple of young artists, commissioned Intervention Architecture after seeing images on the studio’s website of another tiny flat it designed in London’s Barbican Estate.
Similarly to this project, the Barbican flat featured reconfigurable joinery that allowed for optimal use of the compact space.
“The brief here was to create joinery for lots of storage and to have it all hidden behind doors to make the apartment feel more spacious,” Intervention Architecture founder Anna Parker told Dezeen.
Furniture in the Florin Court flat is concealed behind built-in joineryA storage wall lining one side of the living area houses a bed that folds down to rest on a moveable bespoke sofa. Shelving above the bedhead provides space for books with built-in reading lights positioned on either side.
The sofa, which can also be used as a daybed, was built to contain four bespoke flatpack stools. These can be arranged around a dining table that can be broken down and stored within the wall.
The living area houses a daybed that transforms into a moveable sofa when foldedA focal point of the space is the open shelving that functions as a library along the end wall.
Here, a recurring arch motif that references the building’s art deco architecture is used to frame the book-filled niches.
The puzzle-like construction of the shelving was also informed by Florin Court’s claim to fame as the residence of Agatha Christie’s fictional detective Hercule Poirot in the popular ITV television series.
Open shelving functions as a library with art deco-style arch motifsIntegrated into the storage units in one corner of the room is a study nook featuring a bespoke seat and a built-in drawing board that can be raised and adjusted to provide an ergonomic work surface.
Joinery throughout the space was constructed using a single material – poplar plywood with a white oiled finish. The floorboards were sanded and given the same treatment to reinforce the cohesive aesthetic.
“We wanted to retain a sense of calmness and singular surface tone of one natural material in the apartment to create an even tone of light from the one main window opening,” said Parker.
Joinery was constructed using poplar plywood with a white oiled finishThe ceiling, walls and window frames are painted a simple off-white shade that helps to brighten the space. This hue is complemented by the tactile boucle upholstery chosen for the sofa.
The room is illuminated by a single bulb above the study area and a central cluster hung at different heights from the ceiling. A pair of matching bedside lamps provides additional task lighting.
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While the living area is minimal in its use of colour, the adjoining bathroom and kitchen are saturated in bold hues that introduce an expressive element to the scheme.
“As the clients are two formidable artists, where the use of colour is intrinsic to their work, we wanted to reference a singular use of two colours in the two spaces ancillary to the main studio,” Parker added.
The bathroom is clad with blush-pink tiles chosen to evoke a hue that might be found in a 1930s ocean liner. All-white aluminium taps, sanitaryware and a Japanese-style bathtub contribute to the clean and simple aesthetic.
Blush-pink tiles cover the bathroom, contributing to a clean and simple aestheticThe kitchen is entirely painted in a vibrant shade known as International Klein Blue after the French artist Yves Klein, who used it extensively in his artworks.
According to Parker, the use of saturated colour creates an “immersive experience” within the tiny two-square-metre space, which manages to squeeze in a hob, oven, dishwasher, fridge, sink, spice rack and concealed bin storage.
The two-square metre kitchen is painted in International Klein BlueIntervention Architecture was founded by Parker in 2015 and is based in Birmingham, England. The interdisciplinary practice adopts a collaborative approach to its projects, resulting in bespoke solutions with their own unique personality.
The studio has previously worked on several projects in its home city, including an extension clad in cedar battens and a brick extension featuring arched windows that resemble a colonnade.
The photography is by Tom Bird.
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