Paris apartments, modern and airy, used to be a 19th-century photo studio

Ah. Here’s yet another home we’d move to Paris for. This cleverly renovated pair of apartments may appear to be thoroughly modern—The glass! The lines! The unexpected mirrored volume on the lower floor!—but the space was built in the 19th century as a photography studio in Paris’s Opéra-Madeleine district.

The oodles of skylights and windows overlooking Parisian rooftops replaced original glass intended to let in light for its resident artist. Architect Vincent Parreira of local firm AAVP swapped out traditional elements for a more modern look.

The result is a set of chic duplex apartments, each with a bedroom and full bathroom on the lower level, and the main sitting room and kitchen above—to take full advantage of the view. The larger of these two apartments has a low built-in bench running along the windows, marble-filled kitchen, and what is perhaps the apartment’s most beautiful original detail: an ornate iron staircase railing. As the mysterious lower-level mirrored module, it cleverly conceals a bathroom right in the middle of the room.

Both apartments were designed as short-term rentals.

Via: Designboom