Paris apartment gets boat-deck plywood fit-out for DJ Louise Chen

May 22. Architect Cyrus Ardalan renovated a top-floor Paris apartment for DJ Louise Chen and her family with what he describes as a nautical structure. The project, filed by Dezeen this morning, centers on plywood joinery and porthole-style openings cut into interior walls.

The apartment sits on a corner. Ardalan writes that standing in the space felt like being at the prow of a ship. He took that seriously. The floors are plywood planks laid to recall a boat deck. The portholes connect rooms without full openings. The material palette stays tight: birch plywood, white paint, brass hardware.

The detail

The kitchen counter runs continuous from one wall to the opposite, no breaks, plywood edge-banded and sealed. Storage is built into the thickness of walls rather than added as furniture. A sleeping loft sits above the main bedroom, accessible by a fixed ladder. The porthole between the living room and the hallway measures 80 centimeters across, large enough to pass a tray through but small enough to keep the wall structural.

Ardalan avoided marine clichés. No rope pulls, no blue stripes, no anchor motifs. The boat reference lives in the structure and the sightlines, not the styling.

The stance

This is residential architecture that commits to a single metaphor and follows it through to the joinery. Most theme renovations stop at paint color. This one redesigned circulation, fenestration, and material finish to support the concept. Whether the porthole between kitchen and dining room works long-term for a family of four is a separate question, but the discipline is clear.

Chen's DJ schedule was not mentioned in the coverage. The renovation appears to prioritize domestic function over performance space, which makes the boat frame stranger. A touring DJ in a plywood sailboat interior. Filed, not solved.