A dining room with a table and chairs
Across the kitchen’s travertine-topped bar, Federico Peri’s T chairs surround the dining area’s custom table overhung by Labscape’s Goccia Murano-glass chandelier.

September 4, 2025

Words: Ian Phillips

Photography: Nicolas Schimp/Living Inside

Arcs De Triomphe: Explore a Parisian Home Embracing Art Nouveau

Architects Robert Ivanov and Tecla Tangorra named their multidisciplinary firm Labscape Studio because they wanted to suggest a spirit of experimentation. “We place great importance on innovation,” Tangorra says. “At the start of each project, we test out our clients to see how far we can go.” In the case of a recent project—the makeover of a 6,544-square-foot Paris residence belonging to an art-collecting couple—the homeowners’ reaction did not disappoint. “They’re very open to new things,” Ivanov notes. “They really wanted to be surprised.”

The property itself is anything but conventional. On their first visit to the site, Ivanov and Tangorra discovered it comprised two distinct units: a three-level apartment at the rear of a typical Haussmannian building near the Eiffel Tower, and an older four-story mews with a half-timbered facade, located across a courtyard behind it.

Labscape Studio Reimagines A Parisian Home With Flair

A living room with a large painting on the wall
A custom sculptural overmantel and a walnut-paneled archway anchor the fireside living area of a 6,544-square-foot, multilevel Paris residence renovated by Labscape Studio.

Labscape, which has studios in Belgium, Italy, and New York, linked the two parts with a strikingly contemporary structure—a broad, skylight-topped corridor that wraps around the courtyard’s perimeter, leaving a verdant patio at its center. The steel frames of the addition’s arched, floor-to-ceiling windows and doors are eye-catchingly thin. “I wanted them so fine they almost cut the air like razors,” Ivanov explains. Curves in general are close to the studio’s heart. Early in Ivanov’s career, while working for Asymptote Architecture, he grappled with the famously complex, fluid forms of the Yas Island Marina Hotel in Abu Dhabi. “That really taught me how to work with them,” he says, developing a fascination he and Tangorra continue to explore. “We don’t always like to work with orthogonal, angular shapes,” he acknowledges.

Here, curves seem particularly fitting, given the proximity of the Eiffel Tower. “It has a very interesting geometry,” Tangorra observes of the iconic landmark. “It’s not a simple, regular arch, but a splayed one. We thought Why not bring this form—so typical of the art nouveau movement— into the house?” The introduction of these arches created irregular walls and ceilings that helped mask some unfortunately located structural beams and common plumbing lines. “If we’d opted for more classical forms, we’d have had things sticking out all over the place,” Ivanov admits. Another byproduct is an impressive number of architectural niches, some of which are home to custom bookshelves, others to curvaceous built-in sofas.

A Triumph Of Arches Brings This Space To Life

A living room with a white couch and a red chair
Come to the Light, a crystal multiple by Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr, backdrops Labscape’s Lui’ sofa.

The home’s spatial challenges led to a far-from-traditional layout. The ground floor includes the entry and main bedroom—both located in the apartment building—the generous corridor surrounding the patio, and, beyond a pair of expansive arches lined with walnut paneling, the open-plan living, dining, and kitchen area housed in the mews. Off the bedroom, a spiral staircase leads up to the wife’s study on the second floor and down to the basement, which contains a dressing area and bathroom, as well as a pool, sauna, fumoir-home theater, and bar. A second salon occupies a mezzanine above the living-dining space, while two guest bedrooms are found on the top floor.

Style-wise, the clients were adamant they didn’t want anything typically “Parisian.” No marble fireplaces. No elaborate wall and ceiling moldings. Even the classic chevron parquet in the public rooms was given a twist, being in walnut rather than the customary oak. Instead, Labscape enlivens the residence with a number of dramatic gestures. The living area centers on a fireplace topped by a massive sculptural overmantel, loosely based on one at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, which Tangorra visited on a school trip as a teenager. The Paris version, composed of deep-relief ceramic panels, took a whole year to develop. With the help of 3D software, each module was individually modeled, then integrated into a composition unified by a complex gradient incorporating all the colors in the house—from deep green to burgundy.

Parisian Elegance Is Redefined in This Renovation

A bathroom with a marble wall and a sink
Marble characterizes the main bathroom, where shower walls are clad in showstopping Verde Lapponia while flooring is quieter Bianco Thassos.

In the wife’s study, the vibrant carpet—Sumo, a bold geometric from the 1970’s by Jean-Pierre Garrault—reflects her passion for both pattern in general and the era in particular. And the striking green marble cladding walls in the main bathroom was chosen for its powerfully expressive veining. The adjacent dressing room, with its pristine blanched palette and rounded forms, is a touch futuristic. “It’s almost as if you were on a spaceship,” Ivanov remarks.

To take a few steps to the basement bar and adjoining fumoir-home theater is to be transported to another world entirely. “The husband said, ‘It should be imbued with the spirit of old Paris, like a brothel with red-velvet walls,’” Tangorra reports. The studio went to town with a flamboyant Madeleine Castaing carpet sporting a banana leaf motif, a marble-and-ceramic bar, and a pair of jewel-like Murano glass sconces. As for the walls, they’re not simply clad in red velvet but upholstered with horizontal padded bolsters, “not just for visual effect but also for the acoustics,” Ivanov concludes. “That way, our clients don’t need to worry about disturbing the neighbors when they throw a party.”

Inside a Sophisticated Paris Home Revitalized by Labscape Studio

A dining room with a table and chairs
Across the kitchen’s travertine-topped bar, Federico Peri’s T chairs surround the dining area’s custom table overhung by Labscape’s Goccia Murano-glass chandelier.
A curved wooden wall
The archway opens onto a broad, niche-lined circulation corridor surrounding a courtyard patio.
A metal wall with a clock on it
The overmantel’s deep-relief ceramic panels are inspired by decorative concrete blocks at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in Los Angeles.
A room with a wooden floor and a shelf
Beneath a skylight, a custom walnut, travertine, and lacquer shelving unit occupies a corridor niche.
A living room with a couch and a table
Madeleine Castaing’s exuberant Feuilles de Bananier carpet complements the fumoir-home theater’s channeled polyester-velvet walls studded with Michele De Lucchi’s Dioscuri sconces.
A bedroom with a bed and a small desk
A built-in cotton velvet–upholstered sofa joins woven-polyester wallcovering and a custom headboard in the main bedroom.

Embrace an Elevated French Living Experience

A kitchen with a large red refrigerator and a bar stool
Surveyed by Fort Standard’s Counterweight Circle sconce, Robert Lazzeroni’s Colette stools pull up to the kitchen bar.
A living room with a white couch and a piano
A secondary mezzanine salon overlooks the main seating area, which features Draga & Aurel’s Marylin lounge chair and ottoman, a custom rug, and the walnut parquet used throughout the ground floor.
A living room with a couch and a shelf
Jean-Pierre Garrault’s Sumo carpet and a built-in banquette bring a 1970’s vibe to the wife’s study on the second floor.
A bar with a bunch of wine glasses on the wall
Ceramic tile fronts the bar’s Verde Alpi–topped counter, joined by Murano-glass and bronze sconces, all custom.
A room with a large wooden wall and a stool
The theater walls also provide acoustic isolation.
A room with a mirror and a closet
Cabinetry in the dressing area is bleached burl walnut.
A room with a large plant in the center
Studio Segers’s Kodo outdoor lounge chairs stand on the patio’s French limestone slabs.
PROJECT TEAM

LABSCAPE STUDIO: CLAUDIO RUSSONIELLO.

PRODUCT SOURCES

FROM FRONT
BAXTER: LOUNGE CHAIR, OTTOMAN (LIVING AREA), CHAIRS (DINING AREA), NIGHTSTAND (BEDROOM), STOOLS (KITCHEN). CERMICA DI CAVA: CUSTOM OVERMANTEL (LIVING AREA), CUSTOM BAR FRONT (BAR). BOTTEGA VENEZIANA: CUSTOM SCONCES (LIVING AREA, BATHROOM, BAR), CUSTOM CHANDELIER (DINING AREA). WALNUTSGROOVE: CUSTOM TABLE (DINING AREA), CUSTOM WALL UPHOLSTERY (BAR, THEATER). THASSOS MARBLE: FLOORING (BATHROOM). MARGRAF: WALL MARBLE. AXOR: SHOWER FITTINGS. VILLEROY & BOCH: TUB, SINKS. PORTA ROMANA: SCONCES (BEDROOM). NOBILIS: WALLPAPER (BEDROOM, BAR), OTTOMAN FABRIC (THEATER). ROLL & HILL: SCONCE (KITCHEN). ARTEMIDE: SCONCES (THEATER). VINCENT SHEPPARD: FURNITURE (PATIO). JANSEN: WINDOW FRAMES. ARTISAN: STOOLS (BAR). GESSI: SINK FITTINGS. THROUGHOUT DEDAR: UPHOLSTERY FABRIC. CARPET SOCIETY: CARPET.

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