In the Atmosphere

Known for its vast hunting estates, France’s Sologne region, south of Paris in the Loire Valley, has long been a rural escape for Parisians. Its typical châteaux Solognots are tucked amid forests, lakes and hunting grounds – a more informal and inward-looking type of building compared with the region’s grander châteaux. This seems to have suited the Austrian-born, Paris-based architect and interior designer Katja Pargger when she recently restored and redesigned one such property for a family: it feels at times like a dreamy, hidden inner world.

The cinematic feel of this project is deliberate. Pargger was partly inspired by The Rules of the Game, a 1930s classic of French cinema set in a châteaux Solognot where the romantic intrigue plays out against a backdrop of slightly undone aristocratic interiors.

Pargger says that for her, the reference was “more about atmosphere than aesthetics. The film captures a very specific tension – between elegance and underlying complexity, between social rituals and something more ambiguous. This duality resonates with the château: a place that appears composed and serene, yet is layered with narratives.”

Pargger restored both the main château and its outbuildings, turning one of the latter into guest accommodation for when the visiting party extends to include more family and friends. The estate “operates almost like a private hospitality setting, somewhere between a home and a discreet retreat,” she explains. “It is a place designed not only to live in, but to host and to bring people together around long dinners, conversations, and shared time.”

The relationship between inside and out has been prioritised and heightened by the addition of two wrought-iron conservatories, symmetrically framing the building. They are used as dining, gathering and living space, and “architecturally, they extend the building without imitating it,” says Pargger. Throughout, she has been careful to achieve the right balance between preserving the old, and moving forward with the new. The black-and-white checked floors and tapestries on the walls are traditional references: the spectral presence of Pargger’s self-designed latex kimono sends us into more contemporary territory.

Pargger’s interiors always have a deep connection to craftsmanship, and she worked with a network of French makers, including for the stone and metalwork. This has been layered with furniture, lighting and other objects that show the distinct hand of the maker, from Hauvette & Madani’s checkerboard timber side table, to a pair of stitched parchment lamps of Pargger’s own design in one of the bedrooms.

There’s a fluidity here between art, craft and design, with each object given the same reverence and value for its material or sculptural qualities. Ornate Asian wooden lanterns line the staircase, and antique kilim rugs (from Galerie Triff) dress the bed. Pargger sourced several pieces from L’oeil de KO, (design practice Studio KO’s sister gallery of handcrafted finds), including a carved alabaster tree by Pascal Cerchi and a bronze toad candlestick by Eloise van der Heyden.

The materials specified are natural, yet often quite muscular, rather than soft, including leather, stone and raw timber. Pargger says that her palette was “deliberately restrained. Materials were chosen for their ability to age well and to carry both tactile and visual depth.

“Materiality, for me, is never decorative. It is what gives weight and presence to a space. It allows the project to feel grounded – almost inevitable. It is also about how a surface is touched, how light rests on it, and how it is perceived over time.”

This project resonates because it refuses to slip into pastiche. Rather than leaning on a fixed idea of what a château should look like, Pargger treats it as something living, open to reinterpretation. As she puts it, “The key was to avoid nostalgia. The project is not about recreating the past, but about allowing the building to continue its life with precision and clarity.”