Architect Sophie Dries was just 28 when she established her studio back in 2014. Four years on, and her growing portfolio spans showrooms in Istanbul to collectible product design that caught our eye at Salone del Mobile last year. Her latest foray is on her home turf of Paris, where she has taken a friend’s loft space in Canal Saint-Martin district and converted it into a minimalist cove defined by natural light and soft tones.
Dries’ principal concern for her overhaul was to retain the ‘purist spirit’ of the space, to preserve its airy and immaculate personality. She emphasised these traits by removing the majority of the loft’s interior walls. This opened the loft up to its now-generous 90 sq m floorplan, which encompasses a bedroom, dressing room and bathroom at the rear and a spacious kitchen-cum-dining space at its centre. A simple concrete floor laid throughout unites the isolated living spaces, as well as providing the foundation for the muted palette chosen by Dries.
The refined structures of the kitchen and dining areas are awash in blonde woods, and bathed in light thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows. Birch plywood is employed across surfaces in the kitchen, hiding key appliances and messy accessories. Meanwhile, a solid oak table by Guillaume Gouerou is matched with a pair of benches in the dining space, and a bespoke library fitted in an adjacent corner seamlessly stores Dries’ CDs, DVDs, books and paraphernalia collected from her worldwide travels.
The dining room, with plenty of light supplied by the floor-to-ceiling windows. Photography: Gilles Uzan
Between the living and dining spaces, Dries installed a striking geometric structure by Gary William Webb, which acts as a central nucleus for her selection of vintage pieces. In the living room, a sofa reupholstered in Kvadrat fabric with graphic drapes, is accompanied by a 1940s railway coffee table and drawings from Sol Lewitt’s ‘Complex Forms’ series overhead.
The bedroom is also minimally furnished with just a Liaigre ‘Nagato’ bedside table, bed and a prototype ‘Jingle Saw’ chair by Max Lamb inhabiting the space. Dries’ sensibility for art shines here, with a diptych of works by Ettore Sottsass (from the Metafore series) and a collage by Haris Epaminonda. Elsewhere pencil drawings by Nathalie Du Pasquier grace the walls, while in bathroom, Dries includes many of her own works including a brushed steel worktop, black lacquered doors and a tuned wood stool.§
