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Nantes, France



Architects: Office Zola architectes

Client: Private

Project team: Arest (structural engineering)

Design team: Laure Gahéry, Denis Gahéry, Édouard Guyard

Photographer: Javier Callejas

Thin barrette is a 35-meter-long, 2.8-meter-wide, 4-meter-high project. The objective is to set up a loft for a family of 4 in a triplex, placed in a former factory in the Zola district, rehabilitated into housing in the 1990s. 

The principle developed for this renovation is a cleaning process in order to find a volume that is as open as possible to the main living space. 

A staircase is created connecting the three levels of different heights previously connected by hatches and ladders. 

It vertically serves the night areas and delimits the private spaces from the shared living spaces. It was designed as a mechanic in parts to easily bring it to the site and assemble it. 

The structure is reduced to a minimum, the framework consists of commercial steel angles welded in the workshop, the steps are cut and pre-drilled to receive the curved tubular steel guardrails.