Paris’s apartment entrances are the subject of a new photo book, highlighting details that can be missed by visitors focused on the city’s facades. The premise echoes an earlier architectural photography book devoted to Milanese residential buildings.
In 2017, Karl Kolbitz published “Ingressi di Milano” with Taschen, bringing together 144 entrances built between 1920 and 1970. The selection included work by well-known modernists such as Gio Ponti, Piero Portaluppi and Luigi Caccia Dominioni, alongside buildings by architects whose names are now less familiar.
The book’s most striking examples came from the 1950s and 1960s. During Italy’s economic boom, a prosperous, design-conscious middle class emerged, and residents wanted to display their social rise before reaching their apartments. The book’s central surprise was the contrast between the often restrained exterior facades and the richly designed spaces behind them.
Sources: FAZ.