This Light-Bending Micro Apartment Will Make You Look Twice

Miogui Architecture revamps a 137-square-foot Parisian flat with mirrors, color, and plenty of sunlight.

This Light-Bending Micro Apartment Will Make You Look Twice

Miogui Architecture revamps a 137-square-foot Parisian flat with mirrors, color, and plenty of sunlight.

<span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">The micro apartment in Paris that Miogui Architecture designed for a couple as an office/pied-à-terre lives much larger than its 137 square feet.</span>

When a couple in their 40s tasked Miogui Architecture with turning a 137-square-foot Parisian apartment into a flexible live/work space, the firm focused on scale, sunlight, and geometry. "Before our intervention, the bathroom and the kitchen were too large for the size of the apartment, and the bathroom had very little natural light," says founding partner Léo Berastegui.

<span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">The micro apartment in Paris that Miogui Architecture designed for a couple as an office/pied-à-terre lives much larger than its 137 square feet.</span>

The Parisian micro apartment that Miogui Architecture designed for a couple lives much larger than its 137 square feet.

Photo by Philippe Billard

The apartment, located in Paris’s 20th arrondissement, is one of many compact units in a 1930s building that was once a hotel. "The neighborhood is a popular district close to the Père Lachaise cemetery and the Gambetta subway station," says founding partner Sabine Fremiot.

Pale blue drapery sections the kitchen from the rest of the apartment when the residents use the space as an office.

Pale blue drapery sections the kitchen off from the rest of the apartment when the residents use the space as an office.

Photo by Philippe Billard

The duo began by knocking down the apartment’s existing walls and relocating the bathroom and the kitchen so that the two adjacent rooms would form one large triangle. "This created more space for the living room, and more natural light for both the living room and the bathroom," Berastegui says. "We gave a window to the living area to make the space look and feel bigger."

They sectioned the kitchen from the rest of the apartment by hanging pale blue drapes that can be pulled back to connect the space to the living area. "The curtain also makes the kitchen disappear during office time," Fremiot says.

The bathroom, adjacent to the kitchen, features a pale blue exterior wall that ties it to the kitchen area. A mirrored panel on the inside of the door reflects space and light, creating a feeling of spaciousness.

The bathroom, adjacent to the kitchen, features a pale blue exterior wall that echoes the color of the nearby curtain. A mirrored panel on the inside of the door reflects the living area, creating a feeling of spaciousness.

Photo by Philippe Billard

See the full story on Dwell.com: This Light-Bending Micro Apartment Will Make You Look Twice
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