Home, as I've always said, is not an actual building typology. A home can be anything. For some people, a comfortable home might be a suburban single-family house in a bucolic community. And for others, a home might be two converted office spaces in Le Marais that also double as a highly coveted event space for art and design. That's the thing about homes, they're very personal.

This latter scenario describes the home of Jérémy Rocher and Kym Ellery -- a space that seems to be making the rounds in Paris and getting people in the art and design community excited. It was featured in HTSI magazine over the weekend and looks like the below. (In case you were wondering, the answer is yes, that is a piece by James Turrell.)

The design brief given to architect Simon Pesin was to create "a home and a meeting place for art." This is a fascinating use case to me. Because it's cool and interesting and, in my view, a positive thing for the city. Brands like Danish furniture company Frama are some of the groups that have programmed it, which suggests there's maybe a need for more unique spaces like this.

But at the same time, as a real estate developer, it's mostly impossible to underwrite spaces like this. If you were developing this building and thinking about the various buyers/tenants who may want to one day occupy it, this segment would never be on your list. In fact, it is yet another example of Jane Jacobs' famous mantra that "new ideas require old buildings." This is an old building. Here's an excerpt from HTSI:

Rocher bought the property six years ago, though he and Ellery only moved in last year. “It’s funny, the property was on the market for six months because people didn’t see the potential behind it,” he says of what was formerly two office spaces fitted with partition walls, false ceilings and carpeting. “Even the windows and skylights were hidden,” he adds, pointing skyward.

Thankfully, all you need is one person to see the potential. That is one of the magical things about cities.

Photos: Depasquale + Maffini

I love this article in Designlines Magazine about how Lawrence Blairs (owner of Atomic Design) has setup his 65 square meter one bedroom condo to serve as both a place to live and an art gallery.

The main living area is equipped with white vinyl screens that pull down to conceal the kitchen and other private areas, and make it feel like a white-walled gallery space. There’s naturally also a projector on the ceiling.

Supposedly it takes him about 30 minutes to prepare the space before an event. Here is a photo by Arash Moallemi via Designlines:

You don’t necessarily need a lot of space to do the things that you may want to do. You just need to be creative. Do you think that developers should offer more creative space solutions as part of their standard offering?

Steve Aoki was in Toronto today for a collaboration with Saks Fifth Avenue – namely the launch of his fall/winter Dim Mak Collection. 

The after party was at Junction House (the pre-development version). Here is a photo:

I actually wasn’t there (because I’m fighting off some sort of cold), but a friend sent me this photo. 

It’s such a great space for events and production. It used to be an artist studio, but they moved out because they outgrew the space.

If you have a need for a large warehouse space, you can actually rent it by visiting here.