On Partage

Located rue de Charonne, the new coffee-shop On Partage offers market cuisine with fresh and local products cooked on site. The place wants to reflect this image by favouring natural, raw and durable materials creating a friendly atmosphere where people like to share their coffee and meals on a daily basis.

The place has been unoccupied for about ten years. It was a generic space whose charm has been erased by the many transformations undergone over the course of the many activities that occupied it. mmnk architecture studio has endeavoured to reveal the character of the place by getting rid of the additions that disfigured it and by regaining its intrinsic qualities: the stones on the walls, the rough concrete on the floor and its large openings to the outside.

The idea was also to regain coherence with the rest of the building by bringing unity. A new façade was created, in continuity with the rest of the building, to create the feeling of a charming house.

The architects set out to create a warm space that echoes the welcome received at On Partage. Everyone’s comfort has been privileged: the kitchen is spacious and opens onto the courtyard garden. In the room, in addition to the small, classic restaurant tables, there are other spaces for the customers to make their own: a large wooden dining room table around which it is nice to share a meal and alcoves open onto the street that allow customers to spend a more intimate moment in the sunlight.

These simple devices offering different settings and atmospheres are implemented with natural, simple and soft materials. The walls are covered with lime to purify the space while offering a play of textures and lights. The rough concrete slab of the place has been preserved and reworked. Behind the old placos, stone walls have been updated to regain the charm of the existing. The furniture has been designed in wood to bring warmth to these mineral materials while gathering the functional elements necessary for the use of the place: a wooden wall integrates into the tight space all the necessary technical devices without imposing them to the room, the cash desk, interface between the room and the kitchen, also punctuates the first room.

The wooden furniture are vintage and bring the space to a familiar universe, while the lighting fixtures, drawn by Jacques Biny, provide a carefully designed element that contrasts with the raw materials.

mmnk workshop was careful to reveal the qualities of this space and to transform it into a living space by creating a warm and domestic atmosphere.

The new café is anchored in its environment and in the neighborhood, as if it had always been there, and offers a setting in keeping with the values of On Partage.