Separate what is fixed from what adapts
A concept that holds across ten addresses is one where, at the very first site, somebody wrote down what is not allowed to move. Usually: the material palette, the exact colours, the counter height, the drawing of edges and shadow gaps, the lighting logic.
Everything else adapts. A six-metre run becomes 4.20 m in the next unit, and that is normal. What must not happen is a local joiner solving that problem by changing a colour or a thickness because that is what was in stock.
The first site is the prototype
The first one is always the longest and the most expensive, and that is logical: it is where you solve problems you will not pay for again. It is where the details get frozen, where the dry-fit happens in the workshop, and where you write what becomes the brief for the rest.
From the second site on, fabrication speeds up because the shop drawings exist, the materials are referenced and the workshop knows the jigs. The design work, though, has to be redone for every unit.
What is expensive to repeat and what is free
Almost free to repeat: the same colour, the same hardware, the same edge detail, the same assembly principle. Every repetition spreads the machine setup and the material order.
Expensive every time: a layout redrawn from scratch, a material changed mid-rollout, and above all a different deadline per site. Grouping two or three openings into the same production window changes the price far more than negotiating the material.
One supplier, or one per city
Giving each opening to a local craftsman sounds practical, and it is, for logistics. The cost shows up at the third site, when nobody holds the reference for what was done at the first, and the colours start drifting from one address to another.
We design, build in our 550 m² workshop in Cachan and install ourselves, which keeps a single reference for the whole series. In exchange, a distant installation has to be planned and transported, and that is priced honestly case by case.
The constraints that change from unit to unit
Every address has its own rules, and they always arrive later than you would like.
- The public-access (ERP) classification, which decides the fire rating of the materials installed.
- Accessibility rules, which set circulation widths and the height of a reception desk.
- The building's own rules and the permitted working hours.
- Facade and signage permissions, different in every town and stricter in protected areas.
- Access on installation day: loading bay, lift, staircase width, parking.
