INTERIORS I Paris
When a designer opens wide the door of their private home, they invite you not only into their own space, but into their very artistic self. They invite you to discover their calm and their brilliance. This is the way in which the Lebanese-born architect Aline Asmar d’Amman, founder of Culture in Architecture, has chosen to reveal, for the readers of Les Dedans, the beauty and the smile, the source of her overwhelming energy and creativity.
Had he still been alive, the famous urban planner and prefect of the Seine Georges-Eugène Haussmann, whose name is synonymous with the reconstruction of Paris, would certainly have been pleased to step into the home of architect Aline Asmar d’Amman. The building, constructed nearly two centuries ago in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, an emblematic area for the architecture specific to this typology, has been restored by its current owner, who sought to keep intact the building’s heritage, restoring the brilliance of its defining details.
Although still young, Aline Asmar d’Amman has an impressive portfolio, which includes the renovation of emblematic spaces such as the luxurious Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, the Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, and the Orient Express hotel in Venice, located in the imposing Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, as well as the launch of her own furniture collection. It is therefore unsurprising that she has “transferred” to her own home—about which she admits she fell in love the moment she stepped inside—her passion for theatrical, dramatic, and vibrant design, so well attuned to the carved stone façade and generous glazed openings of Haussmann-style buildings. First and foremost, the architect reconfigured the home in order to create a sense of fluid zones and to enlarge the spaces of the rooms, adapting them to the life of a family with adolescent children.
The living room of the home has the appearance of an art gallery: on the left side of the front wall is a large-scale installation by Lebanese artist Abdul Rahman Katanani (Galerie Magda Danysz); in front of it are a large decorative vessel (Johannes Nagel, Galerie Fumi) and a ceramic chair by American artist Katie Stout (Galerie Nina Johnson); on the right: “Multiple Hanging” by Indian artist Hemali Bhuta and photographs of Michele Lamy by Edward Bess; in the centre: sofas by Edward Wormley (right) and Ico Parisi in silk velvet by Jim Thompson, Pierre Frey, and Veraseta; a silk and metal rug designed by Aline d’Amman.
Thus, the entrance hall and the kitchen were expanded (doubling their surface), and two rooms were merged to form an imposing master bedroom. The interior is rich in pieces designed by contemporary artists from all over the world, defining the Lebanese–French–Swiss cultural structure of the family. In vertical composition, the living room is dominated by two large-scale works with a marine theme: “Mediterranean Wave”, an installation made of barbed wire by Abdul Rahman Katanani, and a photograph of the underwater marine base in Saint-Nazaire, France, by Claire Adelfang. Between them unfolds a seductive narrative, both through the contrast of textures and through the value of the elements inhabiting this space: silk velvet sofas, a coffee table made of cement and brass, a ceramic chair, a marble-clad fireplace, a silk and metal rug designed by Aline Asmar d’Amman.
alineasmardamman.com
Photography by Matthieu Salvaing
Words by Luminița Diculescu
Discover the full version of this story in Volume I.