A brutalist touch

With raw concrete walls and ceilings combined with a mix of vintage and contemporary pieces, the home of French-Lebanese interior architect Chadi Abou Jaoude is full of surprises

- KARINE MONIE

When you are accustomed to designing spaces for others, creating your own home can be a challenge. The advantage of having total freedom soon transforms into infinite possibilities – from the floor plan to the material and colour palette to the selection of furniture and art. For French-Lebanese interior architect Chadi Abou Jaoude, surprisingly, the outdoor space was the decisive factor. “I had been looking for an apartment with a terrace for a very long time,” he remembers. “There are just a few in Paris, as most of the historic buildings have zinc roofs, which don’t allow for rooftops.”

Located in Paris’s 20th arrondissement – an eclectic, young and en vogue neighbourhood described in French as bobo, which means bourgeois and bohemian at the same time – the 75-square metre flat is nestled in a typical building from the 1980s with tiled façades. “Outside, it has little external appeal,” Abou Jaoude says. Inside, however, the atypical, row distribution of spaces organised over three levels seduced the interior architect, in addition to the 20-square metre terrace that offered an immediate ‘wow factor’.

Described by Abou Jaoude as “small yet divine,” this al fresco area is where he feels totally relaxed. “I am an outdoor person and since I’ve become a fan of gardening, I can spend whole days taking care of my plants,” he says.