“We forget that we are in Paris.” a private tour of an incredible artist’s wood and moss house in the 18th arrondissement

The house that hides the forest. This is exactly how Casa Franca comes about. The first Parisian building with a stone facade built in an 18th-century cul-de-sac^e in a neighborhood where imaginary baobabs, snakes, jungles, flowers, insects, birds live… This ecosystem was imagined by visual artist Sarah Valente. A self-taught artist who has long combined creativity and entrepreneurship, he inherited the construction gene. “I come from a family of builders. My paternal grandfather, who left his native Italy for France after the Second World War, was a marble cutter and laborer. My father specialized in energy repair. I always saw my parents going to damaged places to repair them without fear. They had this fire in them to make something out of almost nothing.”

Raw land front

When she came across a vacant lot for sale six years ago, a “golden opportunity,” Sarah didn’t hesitate to buy it. “I’ve long wanted to work, live, develop projects in my own place,” explains the woman, who stopped her studies after her bachelor’s degree in order to better devote herself to her many projects. And it was time. the place was a business, I had money saved. I did not hesitate.” However, construction will take three years to begin. “At first I thought about restoring the building,” he explains. But there was nothing to keep. So I decided to tear everything down to show that we can make beautiful and environmentally responsible houses, perhaps a model of the future. There is a raw earth facade, a technique that is ten times less polluting than concrete, and a wooden structure. We have installed a rainwater collection system… Of course, we would like to go even further by installing, for example, a greenhouse on the roof, but we have to juggle what is available and what is not allowed.”

Endemic species

To realize her project, Sara Valente was supported by architects Philibert and Emmanuel Deschellet, committed to a frugal, resourceful and ultimately responsible approach. They worked together on this vertical structure, which is lit only on the facade, because it is embedded in a very dense urban environment. The volumes are designed around a chimeric tree whose roots are visible on the basement ceiling and which seems to pierce the floors on each floor. It is not there. it is only traces, imprints, hints, and yet it exists and seems to support the villa. Thus, the environment favors the flourishing of extraordinary fauna and flora… No NAC, these “new pets” from the ends of the earth, no introduced, uprooted plants… Only endemic species coexist here. All these animals, these little animals, these flowers and wild grasses were born here. More precisely, in the studios of artists who, for the most part, designed them for this extraordinary address, imagined by a person who thinks outside the box.

Faithful approach

“I wanted Casa Franca to be a travel-inspired place that makes us forget we’re in Paris. It should be a space where all my personal and professional activities take place. I live there, but I create my work there, I exhibit it, like my watercolor photo series on Amazon, I host residencies. It is also the headquarters of the Greenline Foundation, which I founded in 2021, which aims to raise awareness of environmental issues through art and work to preserve endangered forests and ecosystems. Therefore, Casa Franca is also dedicated to nature.” To create a dream world, to pay homage to wild life, Sarah called all her artist friends, those whom she has collected and met since the age of 18, the age when she created her first collective. They responded!

Artistic flora and fauna

From the entrance, you can admire the standard of the Pangea duo crossing the serpent, the waves of which are found in many rooms. The couple also signed all the bed linens in the two rooms in the creator’s residence on the first floor. Everything is comfortable on this level, and the two suites with private bathrooms, which can also be converted into a small apartment, are full of unique details; Kui-KuiBy Lou Ross… They come across a multi-purpose room that can accommodate yoga classes as well as demonstrations, and where a hand-embroidered tapestry by Louis Barthelemy was called; tropical paradise which evokes Polynesian craftsmanship, takes center stage. We walk through Casa Franca, like a gallery, but a living gallery, where every object, every piece of furniture, every work has its own meaning and chosen place.

Happy works!

On the ground floor, the reception, meeting and reflection space, arranged like a workshop-office-kitchen, sets the tone with the chairs designed by Emmanuel Deschellet and produced by Victor de Rossi, which gather together in a floral totem. Here, art is integrated into everyday life. It is both joyful and engaging, beautiful and useful. A light sculpture by Paul Krenj illuminates the work table. Hold It resembles the infinity sign, but also… the snake. In Sarah’s bedroom, which crowns the building, the reptile is also draped over a marquetry head by Victor de Rossi, who also created a panel that may be the beast’s egg. “The snake has become a symbol of the house,” Sarah explains. A bathroom with overhead lighting is attached to this bedroom. a large basin and a ceramic relief by Basil Boone of a canopy from which emerges the huntress Diana with the features of Franca, Sarah’s grandmother, give the impression that we are in a clearing. It’s hard to escape this intimate atmosphere, which is both gentle and invigorating.

Nature in the city

A magical mixture that also works in the living room on the second floor. There, Victor de Rossi reimagined the library as a forest, with asymmetrical uprights, evoking forms of branches and integrated micro-gardens, so that plants coexist with books, travel souvenirs, photographs… The room is magnificent during the day, when the light floods in. in through the bay window after caressing the terrace. It is also attractive at night, when dozens of candles in the fireplace are lit. It was Marine Breinaert who designed the sconces, as well as most of the hybrid lighting fixtures that can be powered by both candles and electricity, or even wall lights that climb up the walls like precious insects. After all, it’s nice to be in the kitchen at Hugo Schilge’s table, which could be a research botanist’s scrapbook with its pigments and floral motifs. You must force yourself to raise your head, not to be hypnotized by this revised herbarium, to marvel at Marcela Barceló’s mural, where organic and ghostly forms oscillate in a landscape that is both sylvan and watery. “This picture is like a window. It opens up a perspective in this somewhat closed sector, Sarah explains. When I left the village, I was shocked by the fact that in the city your gaze is always stopped by a wall, a building. That’s why I like to bring new horizons inside me…”.

Eden and treasure

Sarah even knew how to create horizons “at the center of the earth”. A basement that has a side talkative, is a real studio that allows you to develop video projects, record podcasts, music… But above all, what catches the eye is the ten-meter giant work created on the site of Antoine Carbone. It is reminiscent of Matisse’s collages and immerses the visitor in a lush forest where benevolent creatures and cabins hide. This Secret planet – that’s its title – and the floor becomes fluorescent when the light goes out. The Milky Way, loving couples, birds of paradise then shine in the shadows. Sara came up with the idea of ​​using UV light when she was interested in bees. “They see the world in fluorescent light. That’s how it identifies their environment, the flowers they’re going to pick… It amazes me, this ability of nature to invent such systems.” Adventure doesn’t stop in this world of night. This basement hides one last secret. “During construction, everyone who contributed to Casa Franca as it is will become an object, a drawing, a sculpture, a memento, a medal… under the slab,” Sara reveals. A treasure that symbolizes Casa Franca, a rare and expensive house, the construction of which is almost fairy-tale.

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