Carita, Paris [FR]

EeStairs + Le Studio REV

The Maison de Beauté Carita has been a famous destination for international style-setters in Paris since its creation in 1945. Carita has always attracted an A-list of the famous and the aristocratic, so the transformation of Carita’s Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré home by Cristiano Benzoni and Sophie Thuillier, founders of REV/STUDIO, had to be something special.

‘It was necessary to create a monumental, spectacular, memorable space that begins as soon as you walk in through the famous portico,’ said the architects. To achieve this, they cleared out earlier structures from the courtyard and created a higher glass-canopied atrium; and they inserted bridges and ‘light, airy staircases’ which rise gracefully, crossing the atrium at three levels.

EeStairs made and installed the steel stair and bridge structures, which also have leather and stone elements and smooth soffits. The key challenge for us involved the two-piece balusters, which were designed as artisanal features.

This required welding that was virtually seamless. And our team achieved this by using two types of welding very precisely – TIG welds for seamlessness and MIG welds for structural security.