Femke Gow

Raynounard residential, France

Home is a place of comfort, where minds can be set at ease. The Raynounard apartment in Paris reflects this notion in every sense with an intricate balance between modernity and tradition; a light-filled space of repose.

Camille Hermand Architectures saw a traditional Hausmannian apartment, named Raynounard, in central Paris, France transform into a stylish and contemporary four-bedroom family home, bathed in natural light elevated with decorative fixtures.

Designed for a family of four with two young boys, Hermand described her creative vision for the energetic family: “They entertain at home a lot. Both the husband and wife have busy careers and didn’t have the time to look after decorating their home after the renovation. They wanted a functional family home, with enough space and the right atmosphere for hosting dinner with family, friends and colleagues."

Situated on the highest floor of the apartment building, the south-facing apartment underwent little structural change. In order to create a coherent living space for its new occupants and to maximise natural light, Camille Hermand Architectures removed the doors from the compartmentalised star shaped living, dining and kitchen zones. The floorboards were lightened and the walls painted the same shade of light grey throughout.

These simple and creative solutions offer the feeling of fluidity to the apartment that it was previously lacking, while retaining the original charm of the Haussmanian woodwork, mouldings and flooring.

“We wanted to conserve the charm of the original features while at the same time giving a modern twist to their home," said Hermand. "We decided to remove all of the doors in the living areas to make the space feel more open. The wall and suspension lighting was a key element to bringing a contemporary edge.”

These traditional elements find new life through their association with a careful selection of decorative lighting fixtures. “We opted for contemporary lighting throughout with two statement pieces – the Petite Friture Veritgo suspension light in the entrance hall and the ClassiCon Bell pendants over the dining room table, giving a contemporary edge that respects the apartment’s traditional nature.”

Entering the apartment beneath the wide brim of Petite Friture’s Vertigo pendant a dramatic yet playful statement is made to welcome guests into the spacious home while setting the tone for the blend of contemporary and tradition that is so key to Hermand’s designs.

“I like to play with contemporary design codes, mixing graphic motifs and blocks of colour with areas of transparency,” explained Hermand. “I aim to reinterpret the Parisian-chic design philosophy for a contemporary audience with femininity and practicality, always bearing in mind the personality of my clients.”

Standing beneath Veritgo looking into the apartment, guests are presented with a view into the living room, where a light grey couch sits beneath a semi-circled window framed on either side by Tom Dixon’s Base wall lights in copper. These fixtures stand as eclectic personalities, standing out amongst grey tones.

Moving through to the dining area, German designer Sebastian Herkner’s Bell pendant lights for ClassiCon take centre stage in a suspended cluster of three over the dining table. The variety of colour and texture in these pendants creates conversation between other objects around the apartment, recalling the copper of Tom Dixon's Base wall lights. Beneath an angular, staggered shelving unit sits the Panthella table lamp by Verner Panton for Louis Poulsen, to the left of Foscarini's Lumiere Grande table lamp by Italian designer Rodolfo Dordoni. Together, these provide additional lighting for the room and stand as a beautiful ornaments when not in use. This intricate interior is bathed in a flood of natural light washing in from the inward opening French balcony doors.

An open plan hallway connecting the dining room to the kitchen features Plumen’s 001 low energy lamps, also turning to copper as the material for its fitting. Meals are prepared in the kitchen beneath the light of Danish design store Bloomingville’s Wall lamps, also in copper; this repetition creates a wonderful sense of movement and continuity throughout the apartment. Further adding to the contemporary yet traditional theme of the apartment’s interior design, the bathrooms use Astro Lighting’s Cabaret and Cube wall lights to brighten these spaces with a flair of fun sophistication.

Residential projects can be vastly different to those that are more commercial by nature, as homes are such personal and private spaces. Having worked on residential projects before, Hermand had a good idea as to how to work with her client on their family home: “The relationship with the client on a residential project is often much more intense. The architect has to manoeuvre delicately between the different needs and preferences of each family member. Sometimes it is the first time the family will have undergone a major renovation to their home, so you have to analyse quickly what the client wants and needs, when in reality they aren’t actually clear of this themselves.”

From the first instance when Hermand and her client sat down to write the brief together, there was no major deviation; simply clear communication and respect for the home itself and all those involved. The result of this open and creative process is a home where a young family can grow, surrounded by the intelligent produce of creative thought.

www.camillearchitectures.com

by Femke Gow

Victorian residential, UK

Rousseau Design has brought an elegant modern touch to a beautiful Victorian property, ensuring that the lighting works to complement the bespoke furniture and feature installations.

The challenge was to bring to life a beautiful Victorian building - once a school, once a retirement home - a grand property in need of a little lift.

With the property lacking much personality or wow factor, it was down to Ben Rousseau and his team at Rousseau Design to make the residence work to the needs of it owners.

“I could see a lot of potential but wondered if my ideas would be outside of the client’s comfort zone,” Rousseau told darc. “I made a conscious effort to really understand what they liked and disliked and more so, how they wanted to use the property as a family and the functionality of its contents.

“Residential projects are so much more personal and I like that! It can be very hard work but the results always seem that bit more worthwhile. I like to get to know a customer and feel quite proud when I know I’ve given them what they want but taken it even further with my attention to detail and creative imagination.”

Following an initial client meeting, it was decided that the house style was to be glamourous and sophisticated with touches of high technology mixed with modern, yet durable luxury materials and finishes.

“The main area of focus for me is to always start with how the lighting will work and complement the bespoke furniture and feature installations,” said Rousseau. “Then, it’s about making it work with the textures and colours that are being considered.”

The Victorian residence had many features that were perfect for illumination and according to Rousseau, the client had some really clear ideas about what they wanted. They just needed that bit of direction one way or another so that everything sat together nicely as an overall scheme.

“The starting conversation was around a venetian plaster element for a potential feature wall in the hallway or drawing room,” said Rousseau. “We must have gone through around 30 paint colours and complementary plaster finishes before we came to a stunning combination of gold drop ceiling surfaces covered in a metallic fleck plaster.

“We created a warm wash of light around each ceiling to give a rich and warm glow and reflection into the spaces below. We used a common language of lighting detail throughout the property with materials also following a similar pattern, but with slight tonal differences depending on the room and how often it was used. We toned it down in colour for the rooms used most regularly but had consistent pallets of teal blues and champagne golds that ran through the main areas.”

The lighting at this Victorian property had to work in an unobtrusive way, which worked both visually and practically, while enhancing the period features. This was built on with a layer of contemporary bespoke fittings that brought everything up-to-date.

“The lighting was essential to show off the details and we spent a lot of time bringing it together, but not so it takes over,” continued Rousseau. “Clever schemes work because you almost don’t notice the lighting. You need to have fantastic user-friendly control to use a space as a practical environment, but then at the flick of a switch it becomes a chill out space or an entertaining space, where you can show off the lovely fireplace or enjoy a film on the 4K screen, or simply enjoy a meal in low lighting… it's about enjoying the ambience and calmness of the space.”

One of the rooms the client wanted Rousseau and his team to really get involved in was the media room. It was decided that the AV control for this room, along with the lighting control, needed upgrading. This then spread to the entire house and so the level of automation became a complete home solution. Rako was implemented for the lighting and dimming, while Crestron was used for the complete house media control.

Another element of the project was his and her's offices, with the customer requiring a very detailed spec office that was both personal but complementary to the whole house. “This required a lot of design thought and clever material combinations,” said Rousseau. “I never expected to be using a combination of polished corian, bamboo, almond gold wallpaper and bronzed mirrors alongside RGB LED details.”

In order to ensure the house flowed, Rousseau made sure he was consistent in the materials and colours he chose, working with the same principles of what was enhanced and what was left alone. Rousseau used a few signature lighting details and materials, combined in ways that ensure they look modern and luxurious, but won’t date and will look good with the client’s own artwork and personal items. “The project can never be about me and my design,” said Rousseau. “It has to be about the customer and what they want and what they have. I just elevate their items and give them the best solution I can.”

Decorative lighting featured throughout the property includes three Rousseau Design Torus pendant lights in custom teal, used in the living room to coordinate with the rug; a huge fully custom-made chandelier with 18 G9 LEDs, designed and built by Rousseau himself using 500 lead crystals, and a series of pendant lights and chandeliers from Christopher Wray. Architectural illumination adds further to the ambience of each room and works to highlight specific features; 80 Aurora LED baffled spotlights in warm white are used throughout the house. Over 200-metres of warm white LED tape was used for the ceiling covings and furniture detail and approximately 40-metres of RGB LED tape for the furniture in the offices and media room. As well as this, a starscape fibreoptic ceiling in custom blue flocking was installed.

In the entrance way to the house, John Cullen wide beam focus spots were used to illuminate the golden plaster wall arch and a John Cullen narrow beam adjustable spot to focus detail light on the shadows of the antique Thai cart-wheel in the drawing room.

Commenting on the progression of the project, Rousseau told darc: “The biggest challenge by far was the deadline. We had a two-month period to renovate five bathrooms, three bedrooms, two offices, kitchen, a drawing room, hallway and front porch. The client wanted to move out of a rental property and had a date set in stone. It was a very tall order and I thank my team for the late nights, my pressures and demands!

“I love the combination of rooms we produced and as always it is was a very collaborative job. I want clients to be involved, I want them to be excited as we go, I want them to get nervous that they may not like it, as I know that when they open the door to their new room they are going to be blown away by the combinations they helped me put together.

“Every project I do like this grows organically as the customer becomes more relaxed with my crazy ideas and feels confident that I know what I’m doing and how much it will really be enjoyable to have. It’s still very hard for people to imagine the benefits of good lighting and control and how, with the right combination of planning and equipment, it can be a life changer.”

www.rousseau.co.uk

by Femke Gow