The project consists of the two level extension of a three-story-high building. The extension is carried out on the main volume of a building located on the Wagram avenue.
Client: Groupe Batiterre
Programme: Restructuring and extension of an office building
Surface: 680 m2
Estimated budget: €2.5m
Mission: Sketches, preliminary project, final project, consultation file, site supervision
Team: P. Katz, I. Beccar Varela, M. Serena, M. Morice, P. Rubio, A. Vélez
Engineering: SERO ingéniérie
Fire safety and accessibility consultant: Salamandre conseil
The extended volume, whose two levels are arranged as “open-space”, is built with a wooden structure and set back from the ledge, reducing its visual impact and to enhance the existing building. The important cornice at the top of the mansion allows the new volume to be visually established and to highlight the change of style. The balconies created in the extension move beyond the plane of the new façade, aligning themselves with the existent ledge.
We sought a highlighted contrast between the old and the new, while maintaining a serene urban gesture that would not compete with either the existing building or the other volumes on Avenue de Wagram. With this in mind, we propose an envelope for the elevation with a metallic, even slightly reflective, appearance, using a small palette of materials and architectural elements, rigorously arranged on a simple grid. Stainless steel and glass are the protagonists.
The existing mansion is completely renovated inside and partially restructured to accommodate a new vertical circulation core. On the exterior, the façades are kept in their original state, except for the openings : the entrance door and windows are replaced by new, more efficient brushed stainless steel joinery, recalling the intervention carried out above, in the elevation.
