Duplex with terraces

Just a few minutes’ walk from the city center, its shops, and schools, this property offers a preserved and intimate living environment in an urban setting. Numerous parks, leisure, and cultural venues such as the Mac Val, the city’s contemporary art museum, are accessible within a few tram stops. The tram connects to Paris in just 20 minutes (T9 line less than 5 minutes away on foot).

A rapidly expanding commune of Greater Paris, Vitry-sur-Seine will soon be served by the metro line 15, dedicated to mobility in the Parisian suburban area. The RER C station is a 15-minute walk away.

This former Francilian mill embodies an example of the preservation of early 20th-century industrial heritage. Originally an industrial building purchased in 1838 by industrialist Camille Groult, who turned it into a tapioca flour factory. The factory was later converted into a boarding school for young girls before being bought by furniture manufacturer Gestetner.

It was not until the 1980s that a collective of artists, led by Pierre Bertheau, decided to breathe new life into the Mill. Driven by the desire to create affordable living and working spaces for his artist friends, Pierre Bertheau launched the Bertheau Factories concept in 1985. He envisioned creating real estate investment trusts (SCI), in the spirit of a cooperative, so that groups of artists could pool their resources to acquire disused warehouses as co-owned properties. He then assembled a team of architects to transform these brownfields into quality studio residences while respecting their original form and function. He has since undertaken eleven renovation projects, creating over 300 studio-apartments in total.

Led by the XY agency in 2006, the renovation of the Mill includes a metallic exoskeleton built alongside the main building structure, connected by vegetated walkways. This exoskeleton serves multiple functions. It maximizes the living space within the main building and creates a green screen that shields the residences from view.

Inside, the recurrent use of wood echoes the vegetated structure outside and serves as a unifying element throughout the residence. Curved wooden frames, parquet flooring, and exterior cladding, along with the original framework and exposed beams, bring authentic warmth while respecting the historic envelope of the place. The spaces are largely open-plan, promoting diverse uses and flexibility suited to contemporary needs.

Since 1987, XY Architecture, led by Xavier ESSELINCK and Yves BOUR, has focused primarily on the renovation and conversion of urban brownfields or disused sites. They have accompanied numerous renovation projects for the Bertheau Factories.

Whether transforming an industrial brownfield into studios, a garage into a loft, or a historic monument into a museum, the agency masters all scales and uses.