Cyrus Ardalan renovates Modernist apartment in Paris
On a high floor of a 1966 residential building in Paris’ 11th arrondissement, Cyrus Ardalan reworks a 65-square-meter through-apartment. The architect reframes a standard postwar layout through a contemporary lens.
From the entrance, the two-bedroom home opens directly onto a generous, south-facing living area that brings together lounge, dining, and workspace in a single volume. Transitions are marked with precision, most notably through a glass-paste frame that references modern architectural traditions but is treated here less as an ornament than as a functional device. Used on the kitchen island, dining table, and within the shower, the material helps articulate surfaces and edges.
a modernist-inspired renovation by Cyrus Ardalan | all images © Ludovic Balay
Built-in systems shape everyday use
A hallway leads away from the main living area toward two quieter bedrooms overlooking the courtyard. Along this axis, the plan regains a more conventional calm, with access to a shower room and a separate toilet. Storage is absorbed into the architecture throughout, embedded within bespoke furniture elements rather than added as afterthoughts.
Material choice functions as the project’s primary organizing principle. Plywood plays a central role, a recurring element in Ardalan’s work, and here it establishes both visual coherence and spatial hierarchy. Its tone is drawn from the existing window frames, allowing the new interventions to converse with the original fabric of the apartment. The material runs continuously from the living room into the hallway and bedrooms, structuring volumes without relying on excess partitioning. Through careful cutting and alignment, drawer fronts and storage elements are integrated almost invisibly, producing homogeneous volumes that read as continuous planes.
One of the most defining pieces of the property, exclusively listed by Architecture de Collection, whose practice centers on identifying and safeguarding significant examples of 20th- and 21st-century architecture, is the plywood bookshelf in the living area, which extends into a sideboard and a workspace. A 180-degree pivoting door allows the office to open fully toward the living room or disappear when not in use, reinforcing the adaptability of the apartment.
Cyrus Ardalan reworks a 65-square-meter through-apartment ιn Paris
Working within the limits of the existing building
Completed with a cellar in the basement and supported by a building caretaker, the apartment sits within a dense, lived-in neighborhood known for its markets, restaurants, cultural venues, and proximity to green spaces. Original single-glazed window frames and collective gas heating remain in place, anchoring the renovation within the realities of the existing building rather than erasing them. Some of the custom furniture is included in the sale, reinforcing the idea that the project is conceived as a complete, inhabitable system. At 65 square meters, the apartment functions as an experimental ground for exploring how material logic and spatial economy can reshape daily life.
a glass-paste frame references modern architectural traditions
the architect reframes a standard postwar layout through a contemporary lens
a generous, south-facing living area that brings together lounge, dining, and workspace
a hallway leads away from the main living area toward two quieter bedrooms
plywood plays a central role
exploring how material logic and spatial economy can reshape daily life
project info:
name: Modernist-inspired apartment renovation in Paris
renovation architect: Cyrus Ardalan | @cyrus_ardalan
building architects: Christian de Galéa & Saczewski
location: Paris 11th arrondissement, France
area: 65 square meters
original building year: 1966
photographer: Ludovic Balay | @ludovicbalay
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