Take a Look Inside This Rudy Guénaire-Designed Apartment Facing Paris’ Place du Panthéon
Located in a 1920s building, the residential project pairs six-meter German oak floors with bespoke modern furniture.
Summary
Rudy Guénaire designs a timeless apartment overlooking Paris's Panthéon.
The space features Gae Aulenti-inspired steel marquetry and six-meter German oak floors.
Bespoke Brazilian-inspired furniture meets vibrant Iranian onyx bathroom finishes.
Rudy Guénaire has revealed his studio’s latest residential project, an exquisite apartment situated on the penultimate floor of a 1920s building high above the zinc rooftops of Paris, offering striking views towards the dome of the Panthéon. Designed with a fascination for spaces that exist outside of time, the project seamlessly layers distant eras and avant-garde materials to create a dreamlike, timeless environment. The foundation of the space is laid with expansive six-meter-long German oak floorboards that impart an unparalleled sense of softness and acoustic silence, contrasted against the meticulous, geometric lines of the stainless-steel entrance — a direct nod to Gae Aulenti’s iconic Palazzo Pucci in Florence.
The majority of the apartment’s furniture was custom-designed by Guénaire specifically for the project, drawing heavy inspiration from the sensual lines of Brazilian modernism. This bespoke approach is immediately evident in the living room, which features a custom marble and smoked pearwood coffee table inspired by Elsa Peretti’s iconic Bean form, alongside overhead light fixtures made of cast acrylic set within stainless steel that nod to the obsessive lighting integration of the 1920s. The space is further enriched by a curated selection of art and design objects, including the Esther armchair by Esther Hess, Peter Marcasiano paintings from DS Galerie and a Solomon Islands pendant from Galerie Lucas Ratton.
The monumental doors leading to the primary bedroom further showcase the project’s dedication to material craftsmanship, featuring intricate stainless-steel marquetry framing handmade glass panels by Raphael Barrois on one side and amboyna burl with brushed stainless-steel inlays on the reverse.
Inside, the bedroom relies on custom-designed bedside tables with invisible hinges and suede-wrapped bed panels to create a serene retreat. This meticulous attention to material extends into the bathrooms, which are dramatically clad in vibrant Iranian onyx – lagoon blue for the parents’ bathroom and strawberry-sorbet pink for the daughters’ – highlighting the studio’s commitment to showcasing the raw beauty of the earth within a highly refined Parisian context.
