PROJECT # 9 is a partial interior fitting-out to an existing apartment. The original apartment was appointed in a palette of materials comprising of white marble flooring, dark woods and white plastered walls. The overall ‘look-&-feel’ was formal.
The new homeowner, in his 30s, on the contrary prefers a lighter edge to the new interior. He is a fan of mid-century home décor.
With the limitation set to the extent of the renovation, the design sets out to find a strategy that binds the new requirements and the existing interior as one. The intervention is a timber screen that stretches from the Foyer to the Living and culminates at the Dining. It conceals the sea view upon entry, ‘houses’ a shoe cabinet, lighting, window dressing and enables the relocation of existing sockets and switches with minimal hacking.
The screen ‘continues’ into the Master Bedroom to define the Study, the Platform Bed and Nook (former bay window). Collectively, the screen sets the stage for arrival, entertainment, relaxation, dining and resting and forms a backdrop for the owner’s collection of mid-century furniture – Eames, Gio Ponti etc.
The plan of this screen with its folding edges, repeats in the elevational treatment in the form of diagonal patterns in alternating shades of the same timber that lends the space a sense of elevation and rhythm.
Brass accents such as light fittings, door knobs, edging and trimmings complement the timber screen while loose furniture, in a combination of blacken steel legs, ‘bridges’ and ‘binds’ the new screen and the original apartment of dark woods into a new unified WHOLE.
