This building is a true demonstration of steel solutions, with frame, composite floors and envelope. The partitioning of the interior volume is made with lightweight partitions: plasterboard on cold-rolled sections.

Steel frame, composite floors and envelope

Steel lightweight partitions: plasterboard on steel cold-rolled sections

In a construction project, the clients - a couple with two children - turned to Georges Maurios to rescue an undertaking that had begun badly.

Relieved of 100 000 euros by three successive projects and a dishonest contractor, the clients now had only a round 150 000 euros available to achieve their objective: the construction of a family house, juxtaposed with its neighbours in an alley in Paris’s 19th arrondissement.

The object of strenuous appeals, Georges Maurios rose to the challenge, imposing his strategy: an economical envelope of the maximum authorised dimensions, a style to match and the postponement of finishing touches.

This enforced austerity coincides with a requirement for quality in respect of the technical infrastructure (heating, plumbing, sanitary ware) identified as the critical elements of the building and the only priority items of expenditure. Following prolonged fine-tuning imposed by the project’s financial constraints, the building is a true demonstration of steel solutions, with frame, composite floors and envelope. The partitioning of the interior volume is simply a matter of lightweight partitions: plasterboard on cold-rolled sections.

The techniques employed are those of basic steel construction. Adapted or even diverted to non-standard uses, they fashion the house’s architecture.

The building occupies the plot between its neighbours in two bays: the one five metres wide for the living spaces, the other two metres wide for circulation spaces and services. Reduced to the simplest expression, the structure comprises two rows of columns in the wide volume and a continuation supported on the party wall for the residual service strip incorporating the floor openings.

The composite floors are prepainted on their lower face, a non-standard finish, and infills were specially manufactured to accommodate the wave profile above the partitions. The roofcovering consists of conventional prepainted sandwich panels.

The front and rear facades also comprise finely ribbed sandwich panels secured to a wooden subframe. Atypically installed horizontally, this facade panel runs in a single piece for 7 metres between the neighbouring buildings and signals the stratification of the floor levels.

Steel edgings with overlaps were specially fabricated to frame the openings and allow for the thickness of the additional insulation.

The choice of joinery in exotic wood imparts a warm and domestic touch to this industrial-style programme. Another finishing touch, the plasterboard interior cladding incorporates cut-outs to house the radiators.

The centrepiece of the composition, the flights of the commercially available steel staircase link the living volume broken down into alternating half-levels.

A real Parisian town house, with a builtin garage at ground level, an attic at the top and a deck at the rear, at an absolutely unbeatable price. Job done!

Key information

Number of storeys	2
New-build home

Location of steel solutions

External wall
Facade
Floor
Internal wall
Light steel sections

Types of steel used in the building

Metallic coated flat carbon steel

Family town house in Paris