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Paris, France



Architects: Adrien Cosnefroy, Frédérique Paillard

Client: private

Project team: Adrien Cosnefroy, Frédérique Paillard


The architectural intent is to distill and reify this atypical urban site. Tightly ensconced within three adjoining party walls, this house both offers and reveals the span of its garden in which the ground itself becomes a virtual and continuous liaison between interior and exterior. 

The garden façade is developed as a thickness of habitation, assuming two seemingly contradictory functions: First, in harvesting the natural daylight via its generously glazed bays it extends itself beyond its slender footprint, second, within its undulating lines of wide wooden frames and a superposed layer of integrated curtains and drapery, it protects and defines its own intimacy. 

The play of architectural folds refracting any neighboring vis-à-vis. A few select materials, within a simple spatial referent, coalesce to form a refined and soothing haven in the heart of a dense lively district.