Discovering the workshop of Arzinc, the zinc artists

The three floors of Arzinc’s Parisian workshop in Porte de la Chapelle house metallic creations that range from the most classic to the most inventive. Scattered in between, you’ll find stacks of raw material such as sheets of zinc roofing which have been saved from the junk yard to be given a new life.

The founder of Arzinc, Francis Arsène, is an artisan who is passionate about finding new ways of transforming metal. Working with Francis transports you back to the height of the arts and crafts movement, when the artisan was seen as an artist. A bon vivant, Francis brings a collaborative and generous approach to every project.

In Paris, zinc is the obvious choice for terrasses and gardens, since it blends in perfectly to the landscape of gray roofs that have patinated over centuries of history. Zinc only gets more sophisticated with time, each bump and scratch only adding – never detracting – from its unique character.

Visiting Arczinc’s workshop, alone or preferably with our clients, helps lend more imagination and life to our initial sketches. Francis, who is well-versed in all of the technical requirements of his materials, is there to open up a world of possibilities of how to add metallic notes to each garden and his enthusiasm is infectious. These brainstorming sessions enable us to arrive at the final design which sometimes bears no resemblance to the draft tucked under our arms when we enter the atelier.

During this particular visit, Francis showed us some of his latest work with copper, which is a material we would like to use more in our projects. Take a look around the atelier yourself, bonne visite !