DESIGN NAME: Balance is Elegance
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Residential House
INSPIRATION: The original functional space layout seemed unreasonably scattered in this roughcast small apartment.As the window in one of the rooms is set at the dark corner of building.The owner is a young couple living with their cats. Accordingly, a multifunctional living space with sustainable and flexible layout is mainly required to meet various daily-life needs,such as SOHO working, guest meeting,indoor sport doing,pet caring and future kid nourishing.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Diverse balances are playing in an elegant and harmonious way in this small apartment - the balance between living space and work space, between human life and pet life, and between the oself-needs and eco friendly demands. Free and comfortable daily living ambience is also created by casual mashup selection of various furnishing materials,the aura of fresh vintage eclecticism is filled in this small but eclectic apartment.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: -
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started in April 2021 in Changsha,China
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Interior Space and Exhibition Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Instead of traditional herringbone solid wood floor, a kind of herringbone recyclable flooring made by PVC coil material is selected in this project. All wardrobes and lockers are designed as in-closet style or movable metal cabinet structure. In this way, transportation and labor costs are effectively reduced, so are the noise and dust during construction. It also makes an eco friendly and flexible living space available, so as to well avoid the large scale renovations in the future.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: -
TAGS: eclectic style,home office,delicate
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: The design team focus on creating an eco-friendly interior living environment with high space utilization rate: recyclable materials and detachable furniture are selected for sustainable space development in the future, easier transportation, disassembly and installation was available in the whole construction process, so as to avoid excessive dust and unnecessary labor use.
CHALLENGE: It is a small apartment with a living area of 91 square meters. The original functional space layout seemed unreasonably scattered in this roughcast apartment. There was no hallway set at the entrance of original unreasonable space layout.
It led the privacy of master bedroom could not be well protected. In order to better protect private area, the refrigerator planned in the open kitchen is deigned to be pushed to the washbasin area of original guest bathroom, and the remaining space of this area is used for the storage of cat litter box, cat supplies and other sundries. By reasonable space reallocation without any obstruction of natural light, a 1.2m horizontal hallway is created with the storage room for footstool, full-length mirror and shoe cabinet. The hallway is an ideal space to well block visitor’s direct view to the master room when they are at the entrance.
The central activity area is not traditionally spaced by a projection screen or a certain wall, but innovatively enclosed by the living room, open kitchen and work area. All the three functional spaces could be assembled and inter-placed flexibly within their own functions when needed. In addition, the original stereotyped kitchen layout is demolished and merged into the original dining room, to create a brand new at-home-style bar area in a fashionable way.
In the master bedroom, the main bed frame is designed to be separated from the bed back, so that the bed could be moved freely by a customized long bed back set on the wall. This flexible design is convenient for placing the crib in the future. Beside the bed, a bay window area is created, acting as a large-sized nightstand to put eye masks, books, water glasses, headphones, and occasionally a notebook on it as the couple wish.
The other bedroom is for the guests with seldom use. Thus, a wall bed is set with closets on either side of it to save the space when it is not used. Usually, this room is functioned as a storeroom for fitness equipment. As mentioned, it is the right room with the window set at the building’s dark corner enclosed by three facades. An indoor planting bed is built with a mini atrium above to provide natural light for this dark room. The atrium makes the existed visual depression better improved in this room.
A small leisure area is designed by the window at one end of the balcony. It is also a part of public space in this apartment but separated from the living room. The furniture is all foldable here for convenience to air more clothes or to serve as a supplementary space for the living room or dining room. It is really a multifunctional mini space to satisfy 2-3 people for meals, or to be the kid’s homework area in the future. Flexibly, it could be a relatively independent private space for diverse purposes when there are guests in the living room. It is a small but very important corner in this apartment.
ADDED DATE: 2022-02-24 15:46:49
TEAM MEMBERS (1) : Li Lang,Chen Wenhua
IMAGE CREDITS: Li Lang, 2021.
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