“The wall-to-wall French oak paneling, combined with materials that were ahead of their time—columns made not from marble but from stone-blasted concrete, the extraordinary round plaster ceiling inset, and the fiber-wood paneling—and his attention to the tiniest of details.”

Previously occupied by Auguste Perett, one of France’s most celebrated 20th-century architects, renowned for high-profile commissions like the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, this 1930s Paris penthouse (a ten-minute walk from the Eiffel Tower) now seves as the weekend home of Dutch architect Felix Claus. Story goes, Claus paid three years worth of rent in advance to gain permission to restore the apartment...

Photos by Hotze Eisma