Architecture

Appartement Spectral: Interior design so wrong it's right

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Betillon/Dorval‐Bory's Appartement Spectral (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
Betillon/Dorval‐Bory's Appartement Spectral (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The apartment before refurbishment (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The division of space within the apartment was on the grounds of "spectral needs" (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The only artificial lighting in the apartment is fixed to a small partition which separates the kitchen and living space from the sleeping areas (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
Low-pressure sodium lamps do not render colors accurately, or at all, really (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The division of space within the apartment was on the grounds of "spectral needs" (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The bathroom basin is under the stairs (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
Challenged by a client to refurbish a tiny studio apartment in Paris, architect Betillon/Dorval‐Bory was asked to pay special attention to lighting due to the limited daylight available (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The kitchen counter doubles as a half landing (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The kitchen counter doubles as a half landing (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The division of space within the apartment was on the grounds of "spectral needs" (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The kitchen counter doubles as a half landing (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
Challenged by a client to refurbish a tiny studio apartment in Paris, architect Betillon/Dorval‐Bory was asked to pay special attention to lighting due to the limited daylight available (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The division of space within the apartment was on the grounds of "spectral needs" (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The only artificial lighting in the apartment is fixed to a small partition which separates the kitchen and living space from the sleeping areas (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The kitchen counter doubles as a half landing (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
Whether you'd want to live there perhaps depends on whether you prize individualism above practicality (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
Low-pressure sodium lamps do not render colors accurately, or at all, really (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
Challenged by a client to refurbish a tiny studio apartment in Paris, architect Betillon/Dorval‐Bory was asked to pay special attention to lighting due to the limited daylight available (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The division of space within the apartment was on the grounds of "spectral needs" (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
The bathroom basin is under the stairs (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
Low-pressure sodium lamps do not render colors accurately, or at all, really (Photo: Betillon / Dorval Bory)
View gallery - 22 images

Here's an interesting piece of interior design. Challenged by a client to refurbish a tiny studio apartment in Paris, architect Betillon/Dorval‐Bory was asked to pay special attention to lighting due to the limited daylight available in some parts of the apartment. Its response was unusual, to say the least. High-performance lighting was installed at one end and, in one sense, deliberately awful lighting at the other. Named Appartement Spectral, the design breaks every rule in the book, yet the effect is striking – and it's all down to street lighting.

The only artificial lighting in the apartment is fixed to a small partition which separates the kitchen and living space from the sleeping areas (a bunk of a crawl space) and bathroom (a shower underneath). On the kitchen side are seven sleek and modern fluorescent tubes which are high performance in practically every sense. On the other are a pair of low-pressure sodium lamps, which are the kind you'd ordinarily find in street lighting.

In one way, low-pressure sodium lamps (sometimes referred to as SOX lamps for the layer of indium tin oxide infra-red film they're generally coated in) are terrific. Though LEDs are making rapid headway, low-pressure sodium lamps are extremely efficient, approaching 200 lumens/watt. But as anyone who has walked along their street after dark will know, low-pressure sodium lamps cannot render colors accurately. Everything beneath them appears to be the same yellow-brown color of the light itself. This is because SOX lamps emit light at a single wavelength of about 590 nm.

Lighting nerds will be familiar with the color rendering index of a light source, which is a quantitative scale which tops out at 100 for sources which perfectly render color (a group limited to black body radiators). The complexities of the math mean that negative CRIs are theoretically possible, and though sources differ enormously on the CRI of low pressure sodium lamps, if the figure strays far from zero, it's in the wrong direction. Low pressure sodium light is literally monochromatic, though not so much black and white as black and amber.

Though it may sound like madness to use low-pressure sodium lamps in a designer apartment, this was completely deliberate. In fact, the division of space within the apartment was on the grounds of "spectral needs." Sleeping and showering have been deemed monochromatic pastimes, though if the client is intending to read in bed, picture books and glossy magazines may be best avoided. On the other side of the partition the fluorescent light scores a CRI of above 90, thanks to the mixture of phosphors used to coat superior quality lamps to emit light in different wavelengths. Cooking is one activity during which you want colors to appear as they should.

Efficiency aside, there are no obvious advantages to using low-pressure sodium lamps except as a bold design statement. In fact they pose certain practical difficulties. Low-pressure sodium lamps take 10 minutes to start, so any sort of automation or smart control, other than a timer, is impractical (if not impossible). Interior lighting is not something people are generally used to planning around, and it's for this reason that most gas-discharge lamp sources aren't even considered for use indoors.

All of which said, I think this is very clever design, and not just for the lighting. People, though perhaps not hygiene obsessives, on the lookout for space-saving design tips may like to pay attention to the stairs up to the kitchen counter, which doubles as a half landing. It's all tremendous fun, but whether you'd want to live there perhaps depends on whether you prize individualism above practicality.

Update 05.13.2013: This article has been amended. It previously stated that low-pressure sodium lamps take time to "restrike" having recently been turned off. This is not the case. Thanks to the reader that pointed this out.

Source: Betillon/Dorval‐Bory via Arch Daily

View gallery - 22 images
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13 comments
Daishi
I am not sure I would low-pressure sodium in doors but non-white lighting is interesting. I replaced my porch lights with yellow LED "bug lite"'s and they are so much nicer for outdoor lighting than the blinding white porch lights they replaced.
I'd like to do something similar inside too. I sometimes work nights and keep odd hours and my GF gets mad at me because I leave lights on at 3 AM. I'd like to install some warmer lighting for after hours so it doesn't look like daylight in my home 24x7. Maybe some of the new color changing LED's will do the trick?
Justin Thatcher
Where is the toilet? This is going to disturb me for quite some time.
Mark A
The kitchen looks big to me. I would opt for more living space and less kitchen space... after all doesn't Paris have some good restaurants? Oh, and a toilet would be good.
Nairda
I've seen several limited space designs for apartments. Mostly impressive.
If a civilization wishes to raise all its population up to first world living standards, and cater for the 100+ billion people that this planet can truly sustain, then we need to get used to intelligent accommodation layouts.
Agree with Diachi about changing the choice of light. There are some innovative LED and luminescent material technologies around the corner that can create efficient and stunning results while removing the need for a dedicated outlet. ie - the sodium lamp side of the wall can better accommodate the missing toilet if the wall would iridescently glow :)
Lewis M. Dickens III
Very nice!
Just pray that they don't fall off the sleeping shelf down onto the living room/bathroom floor.
A dab of tub and tile caulk would clean up some of the cracks to make it perfect.
Does one study in the kitchen?
I still love it.
Bill
larryc7776
The toilet is a mystery. Closet space (or lack of) is also a question. Overall the look is great but as a practical living space, this is in question.
JAT
No crapper, no closets and, Oh, don't wack your head on the corner of the stairstep above the sink. No thanks, not for me.
Roy Murray
One slip as you're going downstairs and you could take out every one of those neon tubes.
Timothy Rohde
The architectural equivalent of foot binding (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding). Just goes to show you that a certain class of people can be taught to desire ANYTHING.
Brackish
I've seen Paris apartments with the toilet in a separate room across a hallway from the apartment space. Updating buildings that were made before indoor plumbing can produce some unusual layouts.
Doesn't sound like fun on a winter morning.