This apartment inside Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse in Marseille reveals the spatial ambition of the iconic Unité d’Habitation through a rare double-height Type E duplex. Formed in 1966 by combining two adjacent units, the 200 square-meter residence occupies a generous slice of the concrete structure, where proportion and light govern the experience of space.

The living room rises through two levels, drawing daylight from the full-height glazing of the loggia and distributing it across timber floors and raw concrete beams. The structural frame remains visible, its rough surfaces contrasting with the warmth of wood joinery and the smooth sheen of glass. Sunlight moves steadily across the walls, tracing the texture of béton brut and the recessed niches set into the plaster.

images © Mathilde Lebreuil

le corbusier’s Modular Order

In this Le Corbusier-designed apartment, recently listed for sale, the Modulor system is legible in the height of the rooms and the placement of openings. The double-height volume establishes a vertical counterpoint to the long, horizontal sweep of the facade. From the dining area and designed by Charlotte Perriand-designed kitchen, the eye travels outward through the loggia toward Marseille and the distant hills, framed by the repetitive geometry of the brise-soleil and balcony screens.

The lower level gathers living, dining, and library functions within a continuous field. A glass-topped table with red chairs sits beneath the mezzanine edge, while a black chaise lounge rests in a shaft of afternoon light near the glazing. Built-in shelving is set flush into the wall, holding artwork and objects within timber frames that echo the building’s grid.

this rare Type E duplex apartment combines two original units within Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse

lofty interiors with filtered sunlight

A compact stair leads upward to a bridge-like walkway that spans the double-height space. From this elevated passage, one looks down into the living area and outward to the horizon beyond the glazing. The relationship between levels reinforces the sense of shared volume while maintaining separation between public and private zones.

The upper floor contains a main suite, additional bedrooms, and a study arranged along the corridor. Flexible partitions allow rooms to expand or contract according to use. Light filters through the tall windows and across the upper balustrade, softening the transition between levels and sustaining a consistent atmosphere throughout the duplex.

the 200 square-meter interior is defined by a double height living space

exposed concrete beams and timber floors reveal the structure of the Unité d’Habitation

full-height glazing and a deep loggia frame views across Marseille and the surrounding hills

project info:

name: Type E Duplex

architect: Le Corbusier | @fondationlecorbusier

location: Marseille, France

photography: © Mathilde Lebreuil | @mathilde.lebreuil

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At Léopold Sédar Senghor School in Paris, Atelier Pierre-Louis Gerlier transforms a former storage room into an immersive library designed as a colorful learning landscape. The library functions as a small village made up of huts arranged around a large central square, which offers communal space for group reading, discussions, and collective activities. Each hut forms an intimate retreat where a child can sit quietly and immerses themselves in a book. Designed as active elements, the hut walls integrate bookshelves, seating, and openings that function as windows overlooking the central space. These openings allow readers to observe the life of the village while remaining comfortably settled in their own nook.

the architects redefine the room as an immersive environment | all images courtesy of Atelier Pierre-Louis Gerlier

atelier pierre-louis gerlier defines immersive learning space

The project begins with a quiet, underused library at a public school in a working-class suburb of Paris. Books line the shelves, but few students engage with them. The space feels large and cold, but holds clear potential to become a place of refuge, adventure, and discovery for the children. When the French Ministry of Education launches a national fund to support innovative educational initiatives led by teachers, one teacher at the school proposes a new vision for the library. The architects join the initiative and redefine the room not as a storage space, but as an immersive environment for reading, conversation, learning, and imagination. The studio sets a clear goal: create a place that nourishes children’s curiosity while respecting a limited budget.

each hut forms an intimate retreat where a child can sit quietly and immerses themselves in a book

village layout creates varied scales and toolS for curiosity

The varied layout of the huts creates spaces of different scales, from open gathering areas to smaller, more secluded corners for quiet reading. Through this design, the architects turn the library into an educational tool that encourages exploration and curiosity through space itself. Recognizing the strength of the proposal, the Ministry of Education fully funds the project and positions it as a prototype for other schools. As part of the transformation, the studio also develops the library’s visual identity and logo, giving the new space a distinct presence and recognizable image within the school.

the clear goal: create a place that nourishes children’s curiosity while respecting a limited budget

the library functions as a small village made up of huts arranged around a large central square

the hut walls integrate bookshelves, seating, and openings that function as windows

the layout of the huts creates spaces of different scales, from open gathering areas to smaller, more secluded corners

the central square offers communal space for group reading, discussions, and collective activities

the project functions as a prototype for other schools

openings allow readers to observe the life of the village while remaining comfortably settled in their own nook

project info:

name: Transformation of a library in a school in the Paris suburbs
architects: Atelier Pierre-Louis Gerlier | @pierrelouisgerlier

location: Paris, France

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: claire brodka | designboom

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Martinoli Pasini Architectes Associés and Nome Studio complete the Achères Municipal Technical Center and offices in Achères, France. The civic program is organized into two interconnected volumes that accommodate administrative and technical functions, including offices, municipal archives, workshops, and municipal garages. This volumetric approach allows each function to operate independently while ensuring a cohesive working environment.

The site lies within the Petite Arche joint development zone, where design considerations include the town entrance, contextual integration, and alignment with natural elements. The building’s form signals its position in an urbanized area and maintains visual dialogue with the surrounding landscape, including the protected Saint-Germain-En-Laye forest. A vegetated threshold along the northern edge reinforces landscape continuity, while the southern boundary engages with the urban character of the area. Circulation between functions is managed through a covered alley connecting workshops and storage spaces. This passage not only organizes flows but also provides sheltered functional space and encourages interaction among staff.

all images by Cyrille Weiner

Modular Timber-Concrete Structure forms the Center’s frame

The collaborative project between studio Martinoli Pasini Architectes Associés and practice Nome Studio was realized under challenging conditions, including material market restrictions during the 2020–2021 pandemic and geopolitical disruptions in 2022. Despite these constraints, the project benefited from continuous collaboration between the client and the design team, ensuring technical and functional decisions were carefully coordinated with end users. Workshop managers and municipal technical staff participated in refining the design to meet specific operational needs.

Structurally, the center employs a mixed system of concrete walls, glued laminated timber posts and beams, and cross-laminated timber floors. The modular and prefabricated components enable efficient assembly, disassembly, and cost-effective construction. A standardized structural grid supports the facade, which is clad in corrugated stainless steel sheets. The rhythm of the cladding varies across levels, emphasizing the distinction between volumes while maintaining material consistency.

the Achères Municipal Technical Center and offices stand in Achères, France

the design maintains dialogue with the nearby Saint-Germain-en-Laye forest

the project organizes administrative and technical departments within two interconnected volumes

the form establishes a visual relationship with the surrounding urban fabric

the dual-volume configuration enables independent operation while maintaining functional continuity

the site is located within the Petite Arche joint development zone

corrugated stainless steel cladding articulates the volumes through varied rhythmic patterns

the structure combines concrete walls with glued laminated timber posts and beams

a vegetated threshold along the northern edge reinforces landscape continuity

a modular structural grid supports prefabricated assembly

a covered alley organizes circulation between workshops and storage areas

the passage provides sheltered space for daily operational activities

offices, municipal archives, workshops, and garages are accommodated within a unified civic complex

project info:

name: Municipal technical center and offices

architects: Martinoli Pasini Architectes Associés | @martinoli_pasini, Nome Studio | @nome_studio

location: Achères, Île-de-France, France

photographer: Cyrille Weiner | @cyrilleweiner

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

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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, west-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, west-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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Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) unveils a new vision for the Ensemble Immobilier Tour Maine-Montparnasse, a large-scale urban retrofit that transforms a closed 1970s retail complex into an open, pedestrian-focused piece of Paris. Commissioned by the co-owners of the Montparnasse Commercial Centre and the CIT Tower, the project unfolds in parallel with the ongoing redevelopment of the adjacent Montparnasse Tower, led by Nouvelle AOM. The two interventions aim to recalibrate one of the most contested sites of the city, shifting it from an inward-looking megastructure to a permeable urban district grounded in daily life, movement, and public space.

The architects aim to open the site back to the city. New pedestrian routes cut through the block, linking Rue de Rennes, the Montparnasse station, and neighboring streets across three Parisian arrondissements. Ground floors become transparent and permeable, allowing visual and physical continuity through the site.

A large planted piazza anchors this plan. Conceived as a protected civic space, shaded and removed from traffic, it is designed to host everyday activities rather than monumental gestures. Cafés, terraces, cultural programs, and sports facilities activate the square throughout the day, positioning it as a shared living room for the neighborhood.

images courtesy of RPBW

From inward retail complex to Parisian city block

Originally designed by AOM and built between 1969 and 1973, the Ensemble Immobilier Tour Maine-Montparnasse occupies the former Montparnasse train station site, composed of the tower, the commercial center, and the CIT Tower set above it. Conceived during an era of slab-based urban planning, the complex was focused on separation, elevation, and internal circulation. Over time, these strategies produced a fragmented condition, detached from the surrounding neighborhoods.

RPBW’s proposal responds directly to this legacy, reframing the commercial center as a contemporary Parisian block, one that reconnects streets, restores ground-level continuity, and reintroduces public life where it had been pushed aside. New buildings are scaled to harmonize with the surrounding urban fabric, reinforcing the perception of a coherent block instead of a megastructure. Programmatically, the architects introduce a mix of cultural, residential, commercial, and sports uses, including student housing, offices, and local retail. This diversity supports proximity-based daily life and extends activity beyond retail hours, contributing to a more inclusive and walkable environment. Architecture here operates more as a framework for encounter, movement, and coexistence, aligning with broader shifts in how Paris approaches large inner-city transformations.

a large-scale urban retrofit that transforms a closed 1970s retail complex into an open, pedestrian-focused piece

Reuse as structural and environmental logic of the project

RPBW retains the existing structural grid as the backbone of the intervention, reducing material consumption and embodied carbon and positioning reuse as a central design driver. Where new volumes are introduced, they take the form of lightweight timber structures, allowing additional programs to be integrated with minimal structural intervention. Conservation, transformation, and selective demolition result in a project that treats the inherited fabric as a resource.

Commissioned in 2022, the project experienced a pause in 2023 as amendments to Paris’s Land Use Plan were debated. Design work resumed in 2025, with discussions aligning planning, environmental, and client objectives into a unified vision for both the commercial center and the CIT Tower. In late 2025, the Council of Paris voted in favor of the project in a bipartisan decision, followed by the signing of a protocol agreement between the City of Paris and the EITMM in January 2026.

the project unfolds in parallel with the ongoing redevelopment of the adjacent Montparnasse Tower

a large planted piazza anchors this plan

RPBW retains the existing structural grid as the backbone of the intervention

project info:

name: Ensemble Immobilier Tour Maine-Montparnasse (EITMM)

architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop | @rpbw_architects

project: Montparnasse Commercial Centre and CIT Tower

location: Paris, France

client: EITMM Commercial Centre owners’ association; EITMM CIT Tower owners’ association

design team: A. Giralt, P. Colonna, J. B. Mothes (partner and associates in charge)

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Simone Veil school group stands in Tremblay-en-France, on the edge of a quiet residential neighborhood, as a new learning center designed by French practice Le Penhuel & Associés. Built for kindergarten and elementary students, the project replaces an earlier leisure-center model with an arrangement of classrooms, gathering spaces, and outdoor areas.

From the street, the school presents a low profile. Load-bearing stone facades define volumes that feel settled within their context, their pale surfaces punctuated by deep-set wooden openings. The massing reads as a series of connected forms rather than a single block. This eases the transition between the surrounding homes and the civic program that includes eight classrooms, shared facilities, and a rooftop sports field.

images © Vladimir de Mollerat du Jeu

architecture by Le Penhuel & Associés

The architects at Le Penhuel & Associés shape the Simone Veil school building with two intersecting axes. A north-south lobby forms the heart of the building and extends from the entrance toward the playground. This interior street acts as a lived space rather than just a corridor, with alcoves carved into its edges that support reading and small group work. 

Meanwhile, the east-west classroom street organizes the teaching areas. Each classroom opens from a small vestibule that softens the threshold from the corridor. Patios introduce daylight and fresh air, and an interior play area at the crossing of the two routes can be used throughout the day, from early-morning arrivals to after-school activities.

the Simone Veil school opens in a quiet residential neighborhood in Tremblay-en-France

inside the luminous timber school

Teaching spaces within Le Penhuel & Associés’ Simone Veil school benefit from dual orientations for ever-shifting atmospheres. To the north, light enters through patios and washes over shared timber-built zones between paired classrooms, where scale and material encourage quieter activities while, to the south, larger windows face the playground.

Each classroom extends toward a shaded exterior zone that mediates between inside and out. These covered areas support fluid circulation and play. The playground itself stretches along the southern edge of the site beneath a line of trees.

Material decisions play a central role in the project’s character. Stone quarried in Bonneuil-en-Valois, less than sixty kilometers (37 miles) from the site, forms the structural envelope and provides thermal mass that moderates interior temperatures. Inside, the timber structure is expressed throughout, and is paired with earthen bricks placed between classrooms to reinforce a tactile, legible construction.

stone and timber volumes create a calm civic presence at street level

a rooftop playing field is open to the neighborhood

a central lobby functions as an ‘interior street’ for students and staff

classrooms receive daylight from patios and the playground

carved alcoves support reading and small group work

material choices emphasize local stone and visible wood construction

environmental strategies are integrated into the building fabric

project info:

name: Simone Veil school group

architect: Le Penhuel & Associés | @lepenhuel_associes

location: Tremblay-en-France, France

photography: © Vladimir de Mollerat du Jeu | @vladimirdmdj

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The Brise-Vent Havre Harbor Museum is a proposal by LYT-X Studio located along the historic waterfront of Le Havre, France. Planned as an adaptive reuse of an industrial harbor structure, the project positions a former port building as a civic cultural facility woven into the maritime edge of the city.

The site occupies a stretch of working waterfront that once supported industrial exchange. As port operations shifted, the structure lost daily relevance within urban life. The proposal, with its dramatically curving rooftop, treats the existing fabric as a spatial and infrastructural resource, retaining its massing and presence while introducing architectural elements that enable public access and contemporary cultural use.

visualizations © LYT-X Studio

brise-vent havre harbor museum: a threshold for le havre

The Brise-Vent Havre Harbor Museum, designed by LYT-X Studio, organizes movement as a continuous sequence linking city streets, promenade, and harbor. Circulation routes pass across and through the building, encouraging everyday passage alongside scheduled cultural activity. This approach situates the museum within the wider waterfront network, allowing informal use to coexist with exhibitions and events.

A curved roof extension forms a continuous canopy along the water’s edge. The canopy structures circulation, offers shade, and mediates between urban paths and harbor activity. Beneath it, semi open spaces and a sheltered courtyard provide access from both land and water, establishing a public environment that feels accessible throughout the day.

the project adapts an industrial harbor structure into a public cultural space along the waterfront

new waterfront spaces for the public

Public access shapes the architectural decisions across the Brise-Vent Havre Harbor Museum. The courtyard remains open beyond gallery hours, allowing the site to function as a civic space. Transitions between interior and exterior rely on spatial continuity and material alignment rather than visual devices alone. Exhibition halls, performance spaces, and circulation areas accommodate formal programming alongside daily movement.

Environmental strategies build on the reuse of the existing structure. The extended canopy supports passive shading and moderates conditions along the waterfront. Courtyards and roof openings bring daylight into interior volumes, while coastal air movement supports natural ventilation. Through these measures, the Brise-Vent Havre Harbor Museum presents a measured approach to transforming an industrial harbor structure into a lasting cultural presence within the city.

a curved roof canopy defines shaded paths and transitional outdoor spaces

courtyards and semi open areas support daily public access beyond gallery hours

new interventions extend the building toward the harbor to support public movement

circulation routes connect city streets, promenade, and water in a continuous sequence

interior programs align with views toward maritime activity

environmental strategies rely on reuse, daylight, and coastal air movement

project info:

name: Brise-Vent Havre Harbor Museum

architect: LYT-X Studio | @lytx_studio

location: Le Havre, France

area: 31,000 square meters

design team: Dingdong Tang, Zehui Li, Haisheng Xu

status: concept

visualizations: © LYT-X Studio

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The proposed renovation of L’Aventure Michelin by Kengo Kuma & Associates is planned for Clermont-Ferrand, France, on a former tire manufacturing site linked to the company’s early growth. The museum sits within the Quartier des Pistes, a 1960s industrial complex whose long spans and repetitive frames continue to define the area.

L’Aventure Michelin opened to the public in 2009 as a permanent museum dedicated to the history of the brand founded in the city in 1889. Its galleries chart developments from early rubber products through guidebooks, maps, and tire technologies, using the existing factory building as a spatial backdrop.

visualization © Kengo Kuma & Associates

kengo kuma’s subtle intervention

The proposal by Kengo Kuma & Associates treats the inactive Michelin factory as a fixed spatial field. New architectural elements occupy the museum‘s existing structural grid, aligning with column bays and roof trusses. The architects‘ additions read as interior constructions held within the original envelope, maintaining the measured cadence of the industrial frame.

Changes to the exterior remain limited. Roof adjustments introduce daylight through narrow apertures, while facade openings follow the spacing of the concrete structure. The overall massing remains consistent with the original sheds and preserves the scale of the former production grounds.

visualization © Kengo Kuma & Associates

expressive materials for an industrial project

Within its L’Aventure Michelin renovation, Kengo Kuma & Associates’ interior interventions rely on materials that register at close distance. Timber appears in screens, ceilings, and railings, with visible grain and joinery. Bio-based panels sourced from the region sit alongside exposed steel and concrete, their surfaces defined by texture and edge.

The design language associated with legendary Japanese architect emerges through repetition and assembly. Elements are composed in small increments, assembled by hand-sized components that repeat across galleries and circulation paths.

visualization © Kengo Kuma & Associates

rhythmic spaces flooded with daylight

Movement through the museum follows the proportions of the former factory floor. Narrow corridors pass between structural bays before opening into broader exhibition halls where displays occupy the full width of the space. With its rhythmic sawtooth roof structure, elongated overhead windows guide visitors as they move through different zones of the building.

With daylight entering from overhead, light falls across timber surfaces and concrete planes, catching edges of display cases and floor finishes. Artificial lighting remains secondary to the ambient conditions set by the building section.

The renovation maintains a close connection to its setting in Clermont-Ferrand, where the Michelin company established its first workshops. Retained industrial elements and locally sourced materials keep the building tied to its immediate context.

visualization © Kengo Kuma & Associates

visualization © Kengo Kuma & Associates

visualization © Kengo Kuma & Associates

project info:

name: L’Aventure Michelin

architect: Kengo Kuma & Associates | @kkaa_official

location: Clermont-Ferrand, France

visualizations: © Kengo Kuma & Associates

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Gambey, an interior project by Paf atelier and BB architectes, occupies a compact apartment in Paris’s 11th arrondissement, where living spaces are reorganized around a central mezzanine. Rather than reading as a series of separate rooms, the dwelling is experienced as a continuous interior shaped by a single constructed volume that gathers circulation, storage, and programming into one cohesive framework.

To create distinct spaces without subdividing the apartment, the French architects introduce a freestanding steel structure that reads as a piece of interior architecture. This lightweight structure rises through two levels and establishes a strong vertical presence that organizes movement across the plan.

Gambey occupies a compact apartment in Paris’s 11th arrondissement | images © Céline Saby

the steel structure by Paf atelier and BB architectes

Designed by Paf atelier and BB architectes, the intervention is fabricated from orange-lacquered steel profiles infilled with perforated sheet metal panels. Its cross-shaped geometry extends laterally at the mezzanine level and vertically from floor to ceiling, organizing areas for sleeping, working, cooking, and living while remaining spatially open.

Perforation density varies across the panels, shifting between finer and more open patterns. These surfaces register changing light conditions throughout the day while maintaining visual continuity between spaces. From certain angles, furniture and objects appear softened behind the mesh, their outlines filtered rather than concealed.

Close views reveal the precision of the perforated panels, their circular pattern repeated across walls and railings. Light passing through these surfaces casts subtle shadows across the floors and walls.

a freestanding steel structure replaces conventional partitions within the open plan

a mezzanine guides circulation

A stair runs alongside the steel volume within Paf atelier and BB architectes’s Gambey, its handrail and guard formed from the same perforated metal and lacquered finish. The stair connects the main floor to the mezzanine, where a compact work area and seating occupy the upper level. The mezzanine edge aligns with the horizontal arms of the steel structure to reinforce its role as a spatial datum.

At the upper level, the perforated guardrail continues the visual language established below. Views extend across the apartment toward roof glazing, with daylight moving through the mesh and across white walls and pale wood flooring.

the structure forms a cross in plan and rises continuously from floor to ceiling

Living areas and furnishings

On the main floor, the living area remains open, furnished with low tables, stools, and freestanding objects arranged around the steel core. Color appears selectively. Orange steel elements contrast with white surfaces, while blue and pink furnishings introduce secondary tones without dominating the space.

Curtains mark the sleeping area, drawn across openings in the steel frame. Their soft translucency offsets the rigidity of the metal structure and provides privacy within the open plan. When pulled back, the bed sits visibly within the larger room, framed by the mesh panels.

kitchen cabinetry finished in muted metallic tones punctuated by small blue hardware

Kitchen integration and material continuity

Meanwhile, the kitchen sits alongside the central structure, its cabinetry finished in muted metallic tones punctuated by small blue hardware. A structural column, painted the same orange as the steel framework, passes through the kitchen island and visually links the fixed building elements to the inserted volume.

This continuity of color and material extends across levels, connecting stair, guardrails, and vertical supports. The steel surfaces show bolts, edges, and joints without concealment. These details serve to emphasize assembly and construction at a domestic scale.

a structural column is painted the same orange as the steel framework

circulation and handrails integrate the same perforated metal language

orange-lacquered steel and perforated sheet metal define the intervention

the orange elements contrast with blue and pink furnishings

project info:

name: 

architect: Paf atelier | @paf_atelier, BB architectes | @bb_architectes

location: Paris, France

completion: 2025

photographer: © Céline Saby | @celinesaby

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Just southwest of Paris, at the intersection of Andrea Palladio and Frank Lloyd Wright streets in the suburb of Guyancourt, 18 colossal female figures stand together to support one of the most surreal manifestations of postmodernist architecture.

Together, the monumental replicas of the Venus de Milo compose Les Caryatides, two identical apartment blocks standing across from each other, performing their own kind of concrete theater in full view of the public. The project was designed in 1992 by architect Manuel Núñez Yanowsky, who was one of the original team members of Ricardo Bofill’s Taller de Arquitectura in early 1960s Barcelona, and went on to develop several important works, including the iconic Arènes de Picasso in Noisy-le-Grand on the outskirts of Paris. More than three decades after its construction, Les Caryatides de Guyancourt remains legendary to some, absurd to others, but undeniably unforgettable. For its admirers, the project rethinks classical forms and motifs. For its critics, it’s kitsch masquerading as grandeur, a surreal eyesore amid the suburban landscape. As with much of Yanowsky’s work, this project demands attention.

The architect himself calls the building Venus 18, a title that deepens the intrigue. In an Instagram post, he plays with mystery, asking, ‘Is it because she’s 18 years old? Because she’s 2 meters and 18 centimeters tall? Or because she has 17 friends just like her?’ As big fans of the work, designboom paid a visit to Les Caryatides in Guyancourt to explore the building in person and unveil its beauty and peculiarities in the following photographic essay.

all images © designboom

venus de milo as structural element

Spanish-born architect Manuel Núñez Yanowsky’s apartment dwellings are instantly recognizable for their oversized take on classical sculpture. Equal parts theatrical and ironic, the structures critique the enduring performative power of architecture.

The rigid, modular facades of the buildings, punctuated by square windows and recessed panels, rest atop colonnades of towering sculptures, monumental replicas of the Venus de Milo, that icon of broken-limbed antiquity. Each Venus is rendered at an exaggerated scale, perched atop oversized plinths that elevate them from art object to architectural load-bearer. They hold the residential superstructures like postmodern Atlases, serene, idealized, and surreal in context. The figures face outward, indifferent to the weight above or the traffic below, wrapped in flowing drapery that echoes their classical origins. Their missing arms, a signature of the original sculpture, are left uncorrected, heightening the sense of theatrical irony.

18 massive female figures stand together

France’s grands ensembles and villes nouvelles

Set within the Villaroy district of Guyancourt, Venus 18 occupies a unique place in the timeline of French urbanism. The project forms part of the new town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, one of the post-war initiative ‘villes nouvelles’ developed around Paris from the 1970s onward. These satellite cities were conceived to decentralize the capital, manage population growth, and correct the failings of the earlier ‘grands ensembles’ housing boom.

While Les Caryatides emerge from the same lineage, they mark a definitive stylistic and conceptual departure. Unlike the austere, repetitive blocks typical of the grands ensembles era, Yanowsky’s design embraces ornament, irony, and historical reference, reimagining the caryatid, borrowed from ancient Greek architecture, as a postmodern load-bearing icon.

With just 110 apartments, the scale of Les Caryatides is more intimate than its mid-century predecessors, yet its ambition is no less radical. The project reflects the goals of the villes nouvelles: to humanize suburban life, inject architectural diversity, and create urban environments rich in meaning and memory. Set within this context, Les Caryatides questions the assumptions underlying post-war housing. These were never meant to be faceless dormitory suburbs; they were envisioned as vibrant urban futures. Yanowsky’s intervention revives that ambition. Why shouldn’t social housing be monumental? Why can’t everyday architecture embrace theatricality? These provocations are etched into the very fabric of the building.

Venus 18 was designed by Manuel Núñez Yanowsky in 1992

monumental housing before les caryatides

Les Caryatides isn’t Yanowsky’s only foray into urban mythology. Just a few years earlier, he completed another monumental housing complex outside Paris: Les Arènes de Picasso in Noisy-le-Grand (1980–1984). Nicknamed le Camembert by locals, supposedly because Yanowsky showed Jean Nouvel a round of the famous cheese during a site visit,  the building is made up of 540 social housing units clad in boldly patterned, precast concrete. The elevation panels were designed to override the regular grid with a strong visual identity, a tactic Yanowsky used to mask repetition with theatricality. The structure’s circular form and sculptural flourishes seem almost extraterrestrial. In a tongue-in-cheek anecdote relayed by critic Philip Jodidio, Yanowsky joked that the rotating disc of the central structure tilts 15° every morning at 7:00 a.m., launching residents from their beds to the toilet, then to the kitchen, and finally into their cars on the way to work. It’s a myth, of course, but like much of his architecture, it blurs the line between satire and speculation.

each sculpture is rendered at an exaggerated scale

irony becomes infrastructure

Postmodernism looms large over Les Caryatides, bringing with it the era’s embrace of irony, ornament, and symbolic form. But while many postmodern facades stop at surface-level play, Manuel Núñez Yanowsky embeds his classical references deep into the structure.

The project sits squarely within the wave of French postmodernism that crested in the early 1990s. Architects like Ricardo Bofill and Christian de Portzamparc were reintroducing historical motifs, geometric symbolism, and theatrical scale into a landscape dominated by functionalism. Yanowsky aligns with this ethos but pushes it further with a literal, more surreal, and deliberately more provocative approach.

At first glance, the sculptural colonnade may seem like a whimsical gesture. But these stylized Venus de Milo figures serve a structural purpose, bearing the weight of the apartments above. Echoing ancient Greek caryatids, they are reimagined through the lens of late-20th-century monumentalism, transformed into hyperbolic load-bearers that are both expressive and functional.

a project that refuses to go unnoticed

Cult classic or suburban spectacle?

More than 30 years on, Les Caryatides endures as a landmark dressed in enigma. Tourists stumble across it with disbelief. Locals pass it by without fanfare. Architecture students dissect it as an example of how far and how oddly public architecture can go. Whether loved or dismissed, the building continues to perform.

Public response has always been mixed. For some, it’s a refreshing break from the sterile rationalism of post-war planning. For others, its scale and visual language feel jarring, even alien, within the suburban fabric. But this friction is exactly what gives the project its vitality. Yanowsky refuses the notion that public housing must be modest or invisible, arguing for grandeur in the everyday. 

Today, Les Caryatides has achieved a kind of cult status among architecture fans and urban explorers. Its arresting imagery circulates widely on social media, often labeled one of France’s most unexpected buildings. Yet beneath the spectacle lies a serious architectural proposition: that form can provoke thought, that symbolism can enrich lived experience, and that history, handled with both rigor and irreverence, still has the power to shape the city.

monumental replicas of the Venus de Milo

Les Caryatides has aged into a landmark that provokes memory and debate

the project rethinks classical forms and motifs

with their supporting role, the female forms evoke ancient Greek caryatids

circular openings punctuate the building

a building that refuses to go unnoticed

oversized plinths elevate them from art object to architectural load-bearer

the figures face outward, indifferent to the weight above or the traffic below

project info:

name: Les Caryatides / Venus 18

architect: Manuel Núñez Yanowsky | @manolonunezyanowsky

location: Guyancourt, Île-de-France, France

year: 1992

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