Turn a factory into a loft

 For his house, Manuel was looking for a place with a strong industrial identity with everything to create and located at the gates of Paris. Precise criteria that he ended up meeting.

-I had been looking for quite a long time for an unusual place, a small kitchen, a workshop. And I stumbled upon this little factory from the 1930s completely by chance on a site, in fact, which was rather reserved for professionals or companies. And when I got into this place which was totally crowded, with a press, with lots of elements everywhere, there are two things that really made me flash right away: it was first this immense glass roof of 40 m² which brought an incredible zenithal light while it was a rainy day and the second thing was all these industrial, metallic elements, ipn and then a fabulous, majestic staircase, at the same time very airy, and there I said here, this is where I want to live. Now everything remains to be done, it's great!

When I bought the building, this wall was completely blind, it overlooked this little piece of land, and we are facing south, so obviously we had to open to take advantage of the light and the garden. So we created two large bay windows that we wanted to be thermally efficient with aluminium joinery, double glazing anti-burglary, anti-UV, and still electric shutters to be able to protect the house when leaving or for the home. Protect from the sun when it really hits too hard.

A family worksite

Manuel has also dressed the exterior walls with wooden cladding to give the whole a contemporary look. And to carry out this work, which was carried out in just six months, he received precious and special help.

-I'm lucky to have an architect dad, so it was obviously inevitable to bring him into the dance. And it's true that at the beginning the project seemed a little crazy, it even made him laugh at the beginning. And then finally he understood what I had felt when I entered this place, and he joined this project, and we did it together, and it is true that it was absolutely essential help for a project of this span. Everyone had a bit of their role at the level of the companies, at the level of the progress of the site, at the level of relations with the companies. The program was already quite well-defined, and we could not really upset the layout to the extent that we still wanted to keep the metal structure, the staircase, everything that currently exists, we have not touched the structure.

Thermal renovation

The first floor has been little modified, only a kitchen and a small interior garden have been created. The work mainly focused on improving thermal comfort and the search for energy savings.

-So in terms of insulation everything was done since there was nothing, so the advantage is that we were starting from zero. Me, I wanted to use cellulose wadding because it is an ecological material that is a little more expensive than traditional materials, but I discovered that in addition to being an excellent thermal insulator, it is also an excellent sound insulator and being a bit of a musician, for me, it was also important to be able to make music or listen to it without disturbing my neighbours.

The first floor is very open, leaving room for the imposing glass roof.

-So here upstairs we are in a much brighter atmosphere thanks to this 40 m² glass roof that has obviously been completely redone with double glazing, anti-UV treatment. Obviously, to make a glass roof like that, you have to have a structure that allows it to be supported, and we have therefore kept the original structure. So, the canopy, I would say that it allows you to live closer to nature with the good and the bad sides. The good things obviously are this fantastic overhead light and then the fact that when you have half an hour of sun in winter you immediately gain 1 or 2 degrees in the house. Obviously in summer, you also have to protect yourself from solar radiation, so that means putting up blinds that allow the light to be obscured. This space was completely open, so it had to be partitioned off to be able to create a bedroom, a bathroom, a dressing room, and we therefore kept circulation all around the hopper.

The glass roof and the bathroom require efficient ventilation provided by a single flow VMC, but also by removable hatches which evacuate the hot and humid air. As for the heating, it was also chosen to offer maximum thermal comfort.

-Whether on the ground floor or upstairs, we opted for a low temperature underfloor heating, supplied by a condensing boiler because it is a system that allows, on the one hand, to do without a radiator and which offers great comfort, it creates a very diffused heat and I advise all people who like to walk barefoot at home, it is extremely pleasant.

The results of the renovation are extremely positive, allowing Manuel to make real energy savings.

-Finally, after two years spent in this house given the excellent insulation and underfloor heating with our condensing boiler, I realized that we had a consumption of around 75 kg watts per square meter and per year, which is a very good score. The score in Paris being 65 for a bpc, we are not very far.