Rested atop an Art Deco building overlooking the Left Bank and la Tour Eiffel, RE Residence by Vincent Van Duysen is a revamped duplex above the Seine, home to an entrepreneur and contemporary art enthusiast. The intervention aimed at respecting the details and the history of the building while creating a playing field for the owner who leads a lifestyle characterized by soirées with the Parisian cultural high society in attendance.
All this happens in what once was the hotel particularly the building, a private mansion which included a night floor, a music room, and a panoramic terrace topping it all off. The space has been designed to pay homage to Jean-Michel Frank. Using a few select materials, such as natural stone juxtaposed with dark, chocolate brown wood, plaster on the walls, or exquisite wallpaper, he wanted to create deliberately understated interiors for this reception venue, which houses a large collection of art and contemporary furniture.
Tactility was also in mind when picking materials and finishes as rendered, for example, with bronze and massive slabs of marble in the bathroom, in turn, lit by a large Art Deco skylight. The architecture is rigorous, with warm colors, like a box intended to contain the artwork (Richard Serra, Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, among others) yet it embodies the classic grandeur of French living with an impressive salon overlooking Paris’s skyline, courtesy of an expansive window.
The briefing clearly expressed the creation of an ideal enclosure for the owner, who then had a say on the loose vintage furniture, lighting and objects that he has collected for years: Designs by the likes of Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand but also contemporaries such as Rick Owens… The undisputed attention seeker of the property, besides the grand salon, is the roof terrace.
Views aside, here a veranda encapsulates a fireplace topped by a modernist pergola hinting at the International Style and mid-Century work of Le Corbusier and nodding to some architectural element at Villa Noailles. The outdoor greenery has been curated by Wirtz International Landscape Architects from Belgium and complements a soothing water pond. From up there, the impression is of floating in the sky, in a silent atmosphere from which a deep sense of tranquility and serenity emanates.