Loft Rue de la Montagne | Office Zola

35 meters long, 2.8 meters wide, 4 meters high, a geometry that does not match housing standards.
The objective for this rehabilitation was to develop in a former factory in the Zola district, rehabilitated into workshops and housing in the 1990s, a loft for a family of 4 people organized into a triplex.

The principle developed for this renovation is a logic of clearing in order to find a main volume of life as frank as possible, an open-plan space, open to the city and bright.

We have chosen to remove surface area by removing mezzanines in favor of a gain in volume. The economy of means has oriented an appropriation of space by the choice of targeted interventions organizing the spaces between them by a compactness of the more private spaces for the benefit of a generous and completely free main space. The living and working spaces are articulated by a staircase 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. A second staircase provides access to an additional space in the double height above the main access allowing to benefit from an isolated office space or an additional bedroom. In the absence of an outside despite the numerous and generous openings, we invite the outside to enter the accommodation. The plant gradually invests the interior, time will do its work so that the plants can flourish and take full possession of this volume.

Ultimately, it is a question here of giving meaning to a place whose primary destination is not the habitat. Investing in a space to make it pleasant, appropriating it to live in and share moments of life that will punctuate the daily life of its occupants.

Main materials : wood, metal.

Renovation of a loft in a former factory, development of housing and office space.

Condition. Direct order
Client. Private
Architect. Office Zola architectes (mandataire) Consultants. Arest (bet structure)
Surface. 130 m2
Cost. nc
Status. Delivered in december 2018