The affordable French ski apartment has been at the heart of the boom in popularity of snowsports over the past 50 years, and the fact that ski holidays have become accessible to ordinary families, not just the wealthy.
Through much of the late twentieth century we all stayed in tiny apartments where settees transferred in to beds and moaned about there not being room to swing a cat, but still enjoyed great holidays, comparatively low prices and being straight out on to the slopes each morning.
Then as those concrete buildings of the 1960s and 70s began to age and we got a bit more picky, the advent of the more spacious French ski apartment was nigh. Spaces got bigger, quality of fixtures and fittings higher and additional facilities like a small spa might be added to these new developments. Some older complexes were remodelled with two old apartments now being made in to one more spacious living area.
Now the resort of Les Menuires in the huge 3 Valleys ski region has come up with the idea of a space age re-modelling of the classic French apartment. Rather than build new, or knock two in to one, the resort took an existing compact living space off just 55m² and shaped it in to a space that sleeps eight people.
The Aravis 520 apartment in the heart of the resort has been entirely redesigned to still provide the practicality we know and love from French ski apartments, complete with 2 bathrooms kitchen and living room, but with a new level of style and comfort.
How did they do it? According to Antoine Santiard of H2o architects, “we didn’t try to bring the furniture into the apartment, more to bring the apartment into the furniture”.
The refurbishment project has already won several prizes, including The National Wood Construction Prize – Interior Design 2014, Mention Aménagement Intérieur 2014 and the ArchiDesignClub Award for Residential Interiors.
