In a 17th-century listed building overlooking the Seine on Place Dauphine’s historic triangle, designer Francesco Balzano of After Bach has composed an apartment interior both Parisian in palette and Roman in spirit. Conceived for a collector, the renovation balances grandeur with simplicity—green lacquer, ivory lime plaster, bronze, and beige stone. Drawing from Cy Twombly’s Roman studio and the chiaroscuro of Balthus, Balzano translates the poetry of art into lived space.
Trained at École Penninghen and Joseph Dirand Architecture before founding his Paris studio in 2020, Balzano sees design as a way of poetically inhabiting the world. Here, that philosophy is rendered through precision and noble materials: designs by Paolo Buffa, Floris Wubben, and Frédéric Imbert act as counterpoint to the apartment’s measured composition. Join us for a tour.
Photography by Vincent Leroux for After Bach.
The apartment is comprised of two bedrooms and two bathrooms across 180 square meters. Only small structural modifications were made to the existing layout while a new oak parquet, lime plaster, and wood lacquer was applied by After Bach.
