Bright apartment for a young couple with a view of the Seine

The main task of the architects of the NOA studio was to turn an apartment in an 18th-century mansion into a cozy home for a young family

Photo: Nodal+Antoine Huot

This apartment, located in an 18th-century mansion in the heart of Paris, belongs to a young couple from Italy who loves to travel. To convey the “nomadic spirit” of the owners in the interior, the architects of Studio NOA turned to the shape of the nautilus shell, which for those who call themselves citizens of the world has a symbolic meaning. “The Nautilus is one of the rare creatures that survived the Cretaceous period. It is believed that this happened thanks to his shell. It is designed so well that it allowed the mollusk to survive to this day,” the authors of the project say.

Photo: Nodal+Antoine Huot

Photo: Nodal+Antoine Huot

Photo: Nodal+Antoine Huot

The spiral shape is manifested in the layout of the main space of the first floor, where functional zones naturally replace each other. This movement is emphasized by the decoration of the floor: the terrazzo smoothly “passes” from the corridor into the living room, where it borders with the herringbone parquet. At the window overlooking the Seine, the architects organized a cozy place to relax with oak armchairs and black leather cushions. On the other side there is a kitchen-living room, where all the attention is attracted by the texture of gray-blue marble, which is lined with a fireplace and a kitchen countertop.

Photo: Nodal+Antoine Huot

Photo: Nodal+Antoine Huot

Photo: Nodal+Antoine Huot

Also on the ground floor there are two bedrooms and a bathroom. In the master bedroom, the architects installed a freestanding bathtub carved from a single slab of marble. “Distributing the load created by the bathroom in such a way that the old load—bearing structure could withstand it was one of the most difficult tasks of the project,” the team adds.

Upstairs, in the attic, there is a multifunctional space equipped for a home theater, and a guest room with a separate bathroom.