Planeix House

Antonin Planeix (1895-1949) made funerary monuments as a sculptor and painted as an amateur. He wanted a modern house built on a plot he had bought in Paris, and turned to Le Corbusier after visiting the Esprit Nouveau Pavilion. The first plans were drawn at the end of 1925.

Several causes delayed the start of the works: Le Corbusier's frequent absences, constant hesitations, the wish for a flexible house and the changes asked for by a client closely involved in the project; some money worries added to them. Planeix first considered turning the garage into a shop, then gave up the idea and kept the garage in the middle of the ground floor, between two studio flats that he could let.

An order of 16 August 1976 lists the facades and roofs as historic monuments. The restoration of the facades in 2012 brought back the original colour of the renders. The Planeix family kept the house until 2013.

The plot is hemmed in between Boulevard Masséna and the embankment of a railway line. The ground floor, first designed as a free plan, ended up holding two studio flats, each with a studio and bedrooms on a mezzanine. The owner's flat, on the first floor, is reached by an external staircase starting from the rear facade: it comprises an entrance, a dining room, two bedrooms on the street side, a bathroom and a kitchen, and a footbridge leads from the dining room to the garden.

The second floor is occupied by a large two-level studio, with a mezzanine, opening onto a wide balcony overlooking the garden. Sheds on the roof terrace light the studio with natural light.