Reinterpretation of Secession in the imperial district of Metz

The brief: to create a somewhat hybrid place to host photo shoots, filming but also exclusive stays, in short a small space allowing privatizations and somewhat exceptional events in the neighborhood but also weekends and escapes. The district: the so-called “imperial” in Metz, the only one still intact in Europe with the Neustadt of Strasbourg and the most complete and best preserved evidence of German urban planning carried out by the then authorities of the Second Reich. of the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. It is a historic neighborhood, remarkable for the multiplicity of architectural styles represented there and, on its most beautiful forest avenue, the 57 square meter apartment is located in an Art Nouveau building. “extremely bright, with large openings”, as Nathalie Gilbert, head of the Nuée Architecture agency, described to us. “Its floors with very high ceilings drive us into the trees, she continues. Because of its highly molded facade, we redid the windows identically to preserve their curves, an element we took with the glass door that separates the kitchen from the bedroom, both to form continuity and to play with it the history of the building. »

Curved openings

But as often happens, the architect must first completely reconfigure the apartment, in order to arrange all the main rooms on the facade and take advantage of the light. “I wanted to keep the sequence of all the high windows to give the impression of living in a larger volume. » In the good-sized living room, an arched window, which seemed a little lost, is highlighted by its raised floor and extended so as to create a dining area that stages the meal and enlarges this opening full of charm but still delicate to highlight, even if it is the largest in the apartment “With a ceiling height of 3.5 m, it is a question of supporting the strength of this element, so that it does not disappear in the volume of this apartment, which, although it is not huge, visually appears larger. » The kitchen is completely open to the living room thanks to an arch created that takes the curves present in the design of the windows and the patterns of the facade of the building. In its extension, a glass roof overlooks the bedroom.