Moussafir Architects: Step House

French studio Moussafir Architects has completed a detached house in the heart of a very well-preserved block in Paris' 6th arrondissement. Built on the site of an old house, the new building belies the almost total reconstruction intervent only on the Southern front, where an entirely glazed façade provides a glimpse of the volumetry of the interior spaces.

"The most effective metaphor for the project", states architect Jacques Moussafir, "might be that of a Cyclopean stairway, whose core houses the wet rooms, whose stairwell is defined by the gables of the neighbouring buildings, and whose steps and landings form the various living spaces". The fact that there was no need to partition the rooms (with the exception of the bathrooms) allowed the creation of a total spatial continuity from the basement up to the roof terrace.

The steel structure is made up of cantilevered floors borne by the central core and partly dissociated from the three outer walls onto which have been grafted concrete boxes that act as built-in furniture. The choice of materials reinforces the architectural design: the partitions of the central core, the floors and the ceilings are all clad in locust tree, whose colour and pattern contrast with the texture and whiteness of the outer walls.

Step House (Maison Escalier)
Architects: Jacques Moussafir with Alexis Duquennoy, project manager, and Na An.
Client: Eric de Rugy
Budget: € 850 000
Area: 153 sq m + 17 sq m terrace
Consultants: LBE (HVAC engineers), CE Ingénierie and Malishev Wilson Engineers (structural engineers)
Contractors: Microsol (deep foundations), Lisandre (structural work, plumbing, fittings), Général Métal (metal frame), MGN (exterior door and windowframes), B2E (electricity), Tischlerei Bereuter (interior woodwork and panelling).