Before/After: A Micro Interior Architecture in 18m².

Not far from Pigalle, on the fourth floor of an old building, this 18 m² apartment had never been renovated with optimization and comfort in mind. Recently acquired by a family from Montauban, wishing to make it a pied-à-terre for the father working in La Défense and the son starting his studies in the capital, the property needed a complete overhaul.

“The challenge of the project was to design a space capable of accommodating multiple uses, with three beds, while maintaining a good quality of daily life,” says interior architect Valentina Petrovic from AT IN’S Architecture. The challenge? To integrate all the desired functions by the owners, including a comfortable sleeping area, a dining area, a kitchen equipped with a washing machine, plenty of storage, and an optimized bathroom with a water heater.

Valentina Petrovic, AT IN’S Architecture, atin.sarchitecture@gmail.com

 

Before. The initial layout of the place was rather standard with a partition dividing the apartment into two rooms: a living area with a kitchen and a bedroom, with a small bathroom opening onto it. “With this partition in the middle, the apartment lacked visibility. The natural light from the only two windows was blocked, and there was no visual connection to the adjacent room,” describes Valentina Petrovic, who quickly decided to completely open up the space to fully exploit its potential.

 

After. With the partition removed, the interior architect designed the layout of the single room as an interior microarchitecture. “It was necessary to incorporate maximum storage in this space and three beds, while offering the possibility of living and working there on a daily basis. All in just 18 m²,” recalls Valentina Petrovic. The use of custom carpentry was essential to meet this challenge and multipurpose the space.

Discover in the following pages, through images, the complete transformation of the small apartment.