Project Description courtesy of the architects | A ten-meter-high façade curtain with the silhouette of a large ‘Prunus lusitania tree gives the Parisian Rue du Vertbois new élan. The spectacular result of a close collaboration between Inside Outside (Amsterdam) and Moussafir Architectes (Paris), the outdoor curtain covers the façade of a residential & office building in the heart of the city.
In 2016 Inside Outside was asked to develop a curtain that protects against glare and creates privacy, to be installed outside a glass & aluminum façade. Textile architecture has become one of the studio’s signatures, its flexibility and changeability often initiating the immediate transformation of both interior and exterior. This four-piece curtain not only shades and cools the building’s interiors and changes the façade’s composition, it also withstands the forces of nature that prevail in the narrow urban street in which the building is located.
Special features of the curtain include its distinctive “undulating” surface, its per-story controllable movement and the effects of the hidden, linear LED lighting on the surface of the PVC mesh. Circular perforations define the drawing of the tree profile, making the mesh even more permeable for wind while casting playful spots of daylight inward. A solid grey-blue print forms the background of the Prunus lusitanica image that transcends the sub-division of the five stories of the building. The curtain opens and closes via a motorized system with built-in sensors.
Team Inside Outside : Petra Blaisse, Peter Niessen, Nika Jazaei, Desiree Pierluigi, Nafsika Efklidou.
Photography by Hervé Abbadie.
Like what you see? Get it first with a subscription to aspire design and home magazine.