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      Project #13 is an office for Studio Wills + Architects that doubles up as a home

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      Studio Wills + Architects has reconfigured an apartment in Serangoon, Singapore so that it accommodates the studio’s own office and a snug home for its founder.The home and office, which Studio Wills + Architects has named Project #13, is shortlisted in the small interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. It measures 64 square metres and takes over a 30-year-old apartment inside one of Singapore’s public housing blocks.
      Throughout the day it functions as a workspace, while in the evenings it serves as a home to the studio’s founder, William Ng.

      The office is on the left-hand side of the apartment

      “The design really started just as two distinct and autonomous spaces under one roof that can be used independently and/or interchangeably,” Ng told Dezeen.
      “One part eventually evolved as a home for me, as it minimises time spent commuting between work.”

      At the rear of the office is a tiled bathroom
      Although there wasn’t an abundance of space in the apartment, Ng and his studio first decided to section off part of the floor plan and turn it into a foyer.
      “It creates a ‘buffer zone’ between the public and private domains, and at the same time enables two separate entry points, allowing the spaces within to operate independently,” explained the studio.

      The foyer leads through into the right-hand side of the apartment, which includes a relaxed break-out area
      A door to the left of the foyer leads through the studio’s office, at the centre of which are two long work desks for staff.
      Set to the side of the room is a tall wooden volume that is integrated with storage and a tea-making station. There’s additionally a couple of shelving units for presenting architectural models.
      Towards the rear of the office is a kitchenette and a bathroom – complete with a shower – that is entirely clad with square blue-grey tiles.

      A wooden volume with in-built stairs leads to a mezzanine level
      During office hours, staff can spill over into the right-hand side of the apartment to work.
      It plays host to a relaxing lounge dressed with a plush, cream-coloured chaise longue and a lantern-style lamp that emits a warm glow.

      Up on the mezzanine, there is a contemplative tea room
      There’s another tall wooden volume, inbuilt with stairs that lead up to a mezzanine-level tea room where staff can escape for “quiet and contemplation”.
      They can also get a bird’s-eye-view of the office through an opening that has been inserted in the wall up here.
      Beyond the volume, there is an additional table and set of chairs which are used for meetings and another toilet.

      A wall opening by the tea room provides elevated views over the office
      These turn into domestic spaces for Ng after staff leave. Dinner can be enjoyed at the meeting table, the break-out area becomes a living room and the tea room serves as sleeping quarters once the seat cushions are replaced with a roll-out bed.
      Directly beneath the mezzanine there is also built-in storage for Ng’s clothes and dressing room.

      On the other side of the wooden volume is a meeting room, which can also serve as a dining area
      Ng told Dezeen that having work and home so closely interlinked has been particularly useful during the coronavirus pandemic when there have been national lockdowns, more commonly referred to as “circuit breakers” in Singapore.

      KCC Design creates monochrome office for own studio in former factory space

      “Before the circuit breaker, home was felt to be more within an office, but during the circuit breaker, it felt more like an office in the home; this was probably because the boundaries between the two shift and change with use,” he explained.
      “The dining/meeting room was a space for zoom meetings without interference from adjacent spaces; also, the foyer became a space where food deliveries and material samples could be left with no physical contact.”

      At night, the tea room transforms into a bedroom
      Studio Wills + Architects’ Project #13 is one of five small interiors shortlisted in the 2020 Dezeen Awards. Others include Single Person, a design gallery in Shanghai that’s designed to resemble a cave, and Smart Zendo, a family home in Hong Kong that’s fitted with voice-activated technology and space-saving furniture.
      Photography is by Khoo Guo Jie and Finbarr Fallon.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Studio Wills + ArchitectDesign team: Ng William, Kho KeguangC&S engineer: CAGA Consultants PteFitting-out contractor: Sin Hiap Chuan Wood WorksGeneral contractor: Wah Sheng Construction Pte

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      Home Studios fills 20 Bond apartment in New York with one-off decor details

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      Design firm Home Studios used a medley of bespoke furniture and vintage finds to revamp this family apartment in New York’s NoHo neighbourhood.The 20 Bond apartment measures 2000 square feet (186 square metres) and is set within a building that dates back to 1925. Since the 1980s, it hasn’t undergone any significant renovations.

      Above: custom lights hang above the dining area. Top image: the apartment’s living room
      Brooklyn-based Home Studios was asked to carry out the much-needed overhaul of the dated apartment.
      Its owners – a couple with young kids – had grown to be a fan of the studio’s aesthetic after frequenting two New York restaurants it had designed, Elsa and Goat Town.
      This is, to date, only the second residential project that the studio has worked on, but founder Oliver Haslegrave says the creative process was much like developing a restaurant.

      A copper hood contrasts the kitchen’s blue-grey cabinetry

      “Like our hospitality projects, we envisioned an updated and modern space that defies the conformity of a typical residence,” Haslegrave told Dezeen.
      “20 Bond is a direct reflection of our practice in that the end product is both expressive and finely detailed, and marries contemporary and vintage influences.”

      Copper frames the apartment’s curved internal windows
      In the open-plan kitchen, a trio of ring-shaped pendant lamps made bespoke by Home Studios dangle above a walnut dining table. The nickel and brass spotlights that illuminate the central breakfast island were also crafted by the studio.
      Opposite the island is a series of cupboards painted a blue-grey hue called Pigeon by Farrow & Ball, accompanied by a custom extractor hood that’s clad in gleaming copper.

      Home Studios designs cinematic cocktail bar in West Hollywood

      Copper goes on to border the apartment’s rounded door frames and skirting boards. The metal also frames the guest bathroom’s internal window, which bows outwards to form a curved wall.

      Curved forms continue into the guest bathroom
      Curves continue throughout the rest of the bathroom, where a mosaic of tan-coloured tiles sinuously winds around the shower, tub and a seating nook which is inbuilt with a storage box for towels.
      Haslegrave says that these features are meant to act as a small homage to the shapely form of buildings created by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.

      Tan-coloured tiles serve as a backdrop to the shower and bathtub
      “The freeform curves found in [Aalto’s] work represent both a fluid motif and an engaging playfulness that we aim to incorporate in all Home Studios projects,” he explained.
      “We included images of Aalto’s Screen 100 and the Maison Louis Carré – the residential building in Bazoches-Sur-Guyonne, France designed by him and his wife, Elissa – in our initial project mood board.”

      The doorways and skirting in the apartment are also edged with copper
      More bespoke and vintage pieces can be found in the master bedroom, for which Home Studios has made a walnut and travertine headboard.
      A French floor lamp from the 1940s stands in the corner of the room, beside a boucle-upholstered armchair by LA brand Atelier de Troupe.

      A bespoke headboard and vintage French lamp feature in the master bedroom
      In the living room, two antique Danish chairs with woven leather seats have been contrastingly paired with a blocky side table by Sabine Marcelis, which is cast from candy-pink resin.
      An oak and brass shelving unit made by Home Studios dominates a peripheral wall.
      “The final product is a near-ideal extension of our process and values – a tailored place that offers its residents something special,” Haslegrave concluded.

      The nearby living area is dominated by a shelving unit made by the studio
      Home Studios was established by Haslegrave in 2009. Previous projects by the studio include the revamp of Bibo Ergo Sum, an eclectic bar in West Hollywood which takes visual cues from the early 20th-century Viennese architecture, French film posters and the 1967 film The Graduate.
      Photography is by Brian Ferry.
      Project credits:
      Architecture, interior design, furniture and lighting, styling: Home StudiosFabrication: Works Manufacturing, Shelton Studios, Zalla Studios, Anthony Hart, Anders RydstedtConstruction: Vertical Space

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      Retroscena is a colourful apartment renovation by La Macchina Studio

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      Italian architecture office La Macchina Studio has renovated a 1950s apartment in Rome, revealing original terrazzo floors and adding bold colours.Set in the Italian capital’s Appio Latino quarter, the mid-century one-bedroom apartment already had Venetian stone floors.

      The original terrazzo floors have been restored
      La Macchina Studio uncovered them and enlisted local craftsmen to restore the terrazzo, while the apartment was transformed into a “surreal set where reality and fiction coexist in a quasi-theatrical scene”.
      “With Retroscena, we wanted to enhance the irreverent and surreal nature of the architectural story,” said studio founders Gianni Puri and Enrica Siracusa.
      “It is inextricably linked to its photographic alter-ego by playing with colour contrasts, graphic motifs and unexpected incursions.”

      Pops of primary colour stand out against white walls

      Walls and certain elements have been painted bright white, to create a neutral backdrop for the graphic pops of colour.
      An arched doorway and a low, midcentury-style cabinet in the living area are painted a matching bright blue.

      A blue-painted wooden doorway leads to the bedroom
      A pair of zesty lemon-yellow fabric curtains can be pulled across to separate the living area from the kitchen diner and screen off the door to the balcony.
      The arching doorway juts out almost a metre from the wall, screening the kitchen furniture from the view of the hallway. The blue-lacquered wood marks the entrance to the bedroom.

      Yellow curtains can screen the living room off
      A red wall-hanging placed above the sofa marks another splash of primary colour.
      Another doorway set flush to the wall opens to reveal the two-room bathroom. In the first room, a bath and shower are all surrounded by square ceramic white tiles, set in dark grouting to create a graphic check mosaic.

      White square tiles form a check mosaic in the bathroom
      A pointy arched doorway leads to the second half of the bathroom, where a toilet and a bidet face each other across a sink, which is framed by the arch.

      Studio Strato creates cosy reading den in renovated Rome apartment

      Peacock-blue enamelled walls and a dimmable ring light mirror above the sink add to the theatrical styling of the bathroom.

      An arched doorway frames the sink
      In the bedroom, the floor has a ruddy hue, the result of a brick-red micro cement treatment applied by La Macchina Studio. A low-hanging orb-style pendant light and peach velvet curtains create a softer aesthetic.
      Pinkish cement flooring also differentiates the entryway. Built-in white wardrobes in the hallway conceal a hidden room that is used as a study.

      The bedroom has a micro cement floor
      La Macchina Studio was founded by Puri and Siracusa in 2013 and is based in Rome.
      More exciting Roman apartment renovations include a flat with terracotta-coloured walls and an apartment with a reading den visible through a porthole-style cutout.
      Photography is by Paolo Fusco.

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      MW Works uses dark wood and sandy walls for interiors of Ocean Drive apartment in Miami

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      American studio MW Works has converted and refurbished a large beachside apartment on Ocean Drive in Miami, Florida, using tropical hardwood and sand-coloured plaster.The studio knocked together two units in a new high-rise building to create a home for a family of six relocating from Seattle.

      Living areas feature plaster walls and concrete floors
      Materials were chosen to make the most of the quality of light and views of the seashore.
      “The irregular surface of the plaster highlights the changing quality of light throughout the day and lends a softness to private spaces,” said MW Works.

      Dark tropical hardwood in the dining area

      The Ocean Drive apartment’s five bedrooms are placed around the perimeter and decorated in a paler palette, while the kitchen and dining areas in the middle are darker and moodier.
      “Bedroom volumes are treated in pale, sandy tones of hand-troweled plaster reflecting natural light deep into the floor plate,” said the studio
      “The heart of the unit is clad in dark tropical hardwood with careful detailing emphasising mass and craft.”

      Plaster and dark wood in the kitchen
      Wide wooden planks form the floors. Handles and light switches are set into the doors and walls to create an uncluttered atmosphere.
      In the living room and media room, pale concrete floor slabs and a plastered ceiling bounce light around from the floor to ceiling glazing. Balconies overlook a stretch of beach with Miami’s signature lifeguarding huts.

      The home is for a family of six
      Gauzy curtains and earthy-coloured rugs continue the highly textured, refined yet beachy aesthetic of the apartment on Ocean Drive.
      “Woven baskets and patterned floor coverings add a layer of softness,” said MW Works. “Amongst the neutral canvas varied shades of blue, orange and red respond to the native flora and fauna of southern Florida.”

      Bas relief texture in the master bedroom
      In the master bedroom, the headboard wall dividing the bed area from the bathroom has a detailed geometric pattern in bas relief.
      “This design opportunity grew out of the client’s extensive travel in the middle east and their interest in mathematical patterns,” said MW Works.
      “Working with the craftspeople who would install it, we developed a pattern and a fabrication procedure to create an abstracted surface to catch the morning light.”

      The Miami apartment has ocean views
      In the ceilings, an LED lighting system is programmed to track with the sun and change across the course of the day. At night, one of the bathrooms lights up with an approximation of moonlight.
      Based in Seattle, MW Works was founded in 2007 by Steve Mongillo and Eric Walter. The studio often works with natural textures, cladding a cabin in Washington with blackened cedar and using reclaimed timber for a home in Seattle.
      Project credits:
      Architecture and interiors: MW WorksGeneral contractor: DowbuiltLocal contractor: WoolemsEngineer (MEP): Shamrock EngineeringEngineer (low volt): Visual AcousticsEngineer (structural): PCS Structural SolutionsLighting: NiteoFurnishings: Studio DIAA; Matt Anthony DesignsCarved Countertops: The Vero StonePlaster (walls, master headboard): Cathy Connor Studio CWood (casework, floor, ceiling): DowbuiltMetal (casework, hardware, patinas): DowbuiltInterior landscape garden: FormanetaCustom concrete: John DietrichMetals: Argent

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      Residence for Two Collectors is an art-filled Chicago penthouse

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      An extensive art collection is complemented by industrial detailing, a walnut floor and earthy, muted colours in this Chicago penthouse flat that local studio Wheeler Kearns Architects designed for two art collectors.Working together with Sharlene Young of Symbiotic Living, Wheeler Kearns Architects created the interior of Residence for Two Collectors for a couple who wanted a home that would have space for their family, art and furniture.

      The foyer features wooden accessories and earthy colours
      Located in a Chicago high-rise, the penthouse flat measures 6,350 square feet (590 square metres) and was gutted to a shell condition ahead of Wheeler Kearns Architects’ refurbishment.
      Designed for a couple and their dog, the residence is intended to be a welcoming space for family and friends. The owners, who are actively engaged in the community, also wanted room to host philanthropic events for up to 75 people.

      In the living room, floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the Chicago skyline

      “As such it is a bit of a transformer, with a series of perforated metal partitions that open and close to adjust to the needs of the day,” Wheeler Kearns Architects principal Dan Wheeler told Dezeen.
      “Acoustics and lighting systems were carefully integrated into the shell to attend to the technical demands.”

      The guest room has sliding doors for privacy
      The apartment has a master bedroom and a kids’ room as well as a guest room, family room, living room, dining room, a sitting room and two offices.
      A kitchen and a laundry room complete the residence, which also features a terrace and has its own service entrance in addition to the main foyer.

      The dining room is located between the living room and kitchen
      As all rooms are on one floor and many are open-plan, the walnut flooring and muted wall colour are intended to keep the design consistent throughout.
      One of the owner’s father was a machinist, which informed a steel and wood material palette that runs through the apartment.

      Pieces from the owners’ art collection decorate the walls
      “This led to a use of metals, patinated plate and perforated sheet steel,” Wheeler explained. “[The owner’s] focus was down to the selection of the profile of a screw head, something that we could all love.”

      The large, custom-made bookshelf with a dedicated spiral staircase
      “She was drawn to the end-grain walnut block flooring inspired by factory flooring, but here softer, warmer, each milled squared, laid in a grid to purposely bely directionality in the residence,” he added.
      “Those two elements, steel and walnut, drove the project home.”

      Chainmail curtains let light into the living room
      To design the interior the studio worked together with Young, who is the founder of Symbiotic Living, an interior architecture and design firm.

      Vladimir Radutny overhauls industrial Michigan Loft apartment in Chicago

      The owners’ extensive art collection played a big part in her choices for the interior design with key pieces including a George Nakashima bench, Harry Bertoia sculptures and furniture by Paul Evans.

      A green custom-cast glass table adds warmth
      Even the bathrooms, of which there are two as well as an additional powder room, are filled with art. The master bathroom features a lighter colour scheme with pale blue-grey walls and a marble floor.
      Other details include a custom-made loft and bookshelf with a spiral staircase that takes up one side of the living room, which opens up into the dining room; and drapery that resembles chainmail.

      Sculptures decorate the master bathroom
      “Chainmail, a material used historically in both Eastern and Western cultures, conveys strength and endurance, yet it also bears the surprising qualities of visual softness and ability to diffuse sunlight,” she explained.
      Also in Chicago, Vladimir Radutny overhauled an industrial loft on the city’s Michigan Avenue inside a century-old structure that was built for automotive assembly and display.
      Photography is by Tom Rossiter Photography.
      Project credits:
      WKA Team:​​ Dan Wheeler, FAIA, Principal, ​​​Janette Scott, AIA, Project ArchitectConsultants ​General Contractor: JDL Development CorporationOwners Construction Advisor/Manager: Peter SeigelStructural Engineer: Halvorson and PartnersMillwork: Glazebrook WoodworkingAcoustical Consultant: Threshold AcousticsLighting Design: Mitchell Cohn LightingMEP: BES Engineering SystemsInteriors: Sharlene Young with Wheeler Kearns Architects (founder of Symbiotic Living)

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      Edition Office rearranges The Melburnian Apartment around oak wood volumes

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      Towering, pale wood volumes hide the functional elements of this apartment in Melbourne, Australia which has been overhauled by local architecture studio Edition Office.The Melburnian Apartment – which is shortlisted in the apartment interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards – is set within a residential building in the Southbank neighbourhood, overlooking the city’s arts precinct and royal botanical gardens.
      Prior to Edition Office’s intervention, it had featured several rectilinear rooms that were awkwardly crammed into the apartment’s crescent-shaped floor plan.

      The Melburnian Apartment is arranged around volumes made from oak wood

      The studio was asked by the young couple who own the apartment to create a less restrictive, easy-going layout that was more suited to their often unpredictable social lives.
      After knocking through a majority of the existing plaster-board partition walls, Edition Office decided to tuck away the functional elements of the home inside a trio of full-height storage volumes.

      A kitchen is hidden behind one of the volumes
      “The design response is inherently simple, refined and calming – which restores and creates freedom,” explained the studio.
      “Circulation drifts and flows around the formal partitioning elements, allowing for a space with no doors,” it added. “In this way, the clients move from sleep to morning coffee to home office to showering to washing to working to thinking in a continually evolving and smooth loop.”

      White oak wood lines the outside of the volumes. Photo is by Kim Bridgland of Edition Office
      Each of the rounded volumes are externally lined with oiled white oak wood, while the insides are clad with grey granite tiles – two materials that the studio thought would offset the apartment building’s “textural aloofness”.
      One of the volumes contains a kitchen, which has been minimally finished with handleless timber cupboards. The second volume has been in-built with a sofa upholstered in tan-brown leather and a small desk, which are meant to have the same feel as a study cubicle in a library.

      The inside of the volumes are clad with granite tiles
      The third and final volume has been made to curve around a freestanding desk to form a larger home office. Several steel shelves have been incorporated so that the inhabitants have a place to display their wide array of novels.
      An additional bathroom is also integrated into the back of this volume, which is almost entirely covered with slim white tiles. It also includes a marble-effect vanity cabinet.

      Another one of the volumes curves around a study with steel bookshelves. Photo is by Kim Bridgland of Edition Office
      Edition Office has carefully arranged the volumes to provide shade to living spaces, which were often flooded with sunlight from the floor-to-ceiling window that curves around the apartment’s front elevation.

      Black pavilion filled with glass yams examines colonisation in Australia

      “Their curved forms invite light and shadow to drift and smear around corners, and allow for a home that has too much natural daylight to provide the sanctuary of shadow and the textural delight that comes with it,” added the studio.
      The volumes also block sightlines to the master bedroom in the corner of the apartment, which is simply separated from the rest of the plan by a raw-linen curtain.

      This volume also includes a white-tile bathroom
      Edition Office was established in 2016 and is led by Kim Bridgland and Aaron Roberts. The studio was named as emerging architect of the year in the 2019 Dezeen Awards.
      In this year’s awards, its Melburnian Apartment will compete against projects such as La Nave by Nomos, a flat in Madrid that occupies an abandoned workshop, and Jaffa House 4 by Pitsou Kedem Architects, an apartment that’s set inside a 300-year-old brick building in Tel Aviv.
      Photography is by Ben Hosking unless stated otherwise.

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      Agnieszka Owsiany Studio creates tranquil apartment in Poznań for couple working in medicine

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      The high-pressure medical jobs of the couple living in this Poznań apartment led Agnieszka Owsiany Studio to apply a calming mix of wood and pale marble throughout the interiors.Set inside a newly built residential block that overlooks a botanical garden, the Botaniczna Apartment is home to a surgeon and his wife who runs a medical clinic.

      Above: the living area. Top image: a wood-lined hallway leads to the apartment’s master bedroom
      The couple had purchased the 90-square-metre apartment as an empty shell but soon brought Agnieszka Owsiany Studio on board to develop the interiors.

      They requested that the studio compose a calming home environment where they could unwind at the end of their often stressful workdays.

      The couple’s personal trinkets can be displayed in a long walnut sideboard
      “My clients asked for a high quality, almost hotel-like space as they were in need of everyday comfort,” the studio’s founder, Agnieszka Owsiany, told Dezeen.
      “I really wanted to create something timeless, hence the idea to use the materials such as wood and travertine which age beautifully and hopefully won’t be replaced within many years,” she continued.
      “All the kinds of wood and stone I chose, they have these nice, soothing warm tones.”

      A black dining table contrast the neutral colours elsewhere in the room
      Wooden chevron flooring runs throughout the home’s open-plan living and dining room, at the centre of which sits a plump sofa upholstered in brown leather.
      A coffee table perches on a fluffy rug just in front. It runs alongside a four-metre-long walnut sideboard where the couple can tuck books and magazines, or display small ornaments.

      The kitchen boasts oak cabinetry and a travertine marble island
      The kitchen is placed in the corner of the room, finished with oak cabinetry. Slim slabs of creamy travertine marble have been used to make the splashback behind the stove and the breakfast island.

      Nadzieja restaurant in Poznań features understated Bauhaus-style interiors

      There’s additionally a console made from burl wood – specifically chosen by the studio for its distinctive grain pattern – and a jet-black dining table fashion from bogwood, which is meant to stand in stark contrast to the otherwise neutral shades in the room.

      Burl wood has been used to make a distinctive vanity desk in the bedroom
      A cosy, wood-panelled hallway leads to the apartment’s other rooms, which lie behind floor-to-ceiling doors.
      Agnieszka Owsiany Studio has continued using much the same material palette – for example, burl wood has been used to create a vanity desk in the master bedroom. Oak storage units feature in the adjacent walk-in-wardrobe, which is neatly obscured by a linen-curtain screen.

      Travertine marble also covers surfaces in the bathroom
      The same travertine marble that features in the kitchen has been used to line surfaces in the bathroom and to make the washbasins.
      In the home office, oak lines the back wall and a full-height gridded shelf.

      The home office includes a full-height oak shelving unit
      This isn’t the first project that Agnieszka Owsiany Studio has completed in the Polish city of Poznań.
      At the end of last year, the studio designed the interiors of restaurant Nadzieja, filling it with Bauhaus-inspired details like tubular steel-frame chairs and pale partition walls that echo the buildings seen in Tel Aviv’s White City.
      Photography is by Pion Studio.

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      Sim-Plex Design Studio creates a four-bedroom smart home in Hong Kong

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      Voice-activated technology and space-saving furniture helped Sim-Plex Design Studio turn a two-bedroom home in Hong Kong into Smart Zendo, a four-bedroom apartment with hidden storage.Smart Zendo is in Hong Kong’s Coastal Skyline neighbourhood. The project has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the small interior of the year category.

      A coffee table appears on voice command
      Sim-Plex Design Studio converted the home for a couple who often travel for work and needed room for multigenerational living.

      “Eric and Lory moved to Hong Kong from Taiwan many years ago and have a son,” said Sim-Plex founder Patrick Lam.

      Benches hide storage in the kitchen area
      “Eric needs to travel frequently throughout the country, and Lory is a flight attendant. The lack of time spent at home means they often need their grandmother to take care of the children,” added Lam.
      “Eric and Lory often talk about the scenery and homestay in Taiwan and how they missed them so much.”

      The apartment can now house four or five people
      Sim-Plex Design Studio aimed to recreate the feeling of their old home in Taiwan while building a flexible living space that could make the most of the 492-square-foot home.
      Wide windows make the most of the views and pale Maplewood floors and cabinets were chosen to create a calm and warm atmosphere.

      A screen unfolds to turn the living area into a private room
      The floor of the living room is a raised platform with trap door-style elements that lift to reveal hidden storage for children’s toys and other household necessities.
      A coffee table up rises up from the platform to create a sunken bench where the adults can sit and enjoy tea ceremonies.

      Toys can be stored in the raised platform floor
      Technology is everywhere in the apartment, but the interior designers deliberately made it less obvious, preferring a subtle approach rather than overtly futuristic placements.
      Smart homes should use technology to enhance the lives of busy city dwellers, not distract them, said Lam.

      A table rises up for sharing a tea ceremony
      Voice-activated technology allows the residents to open the curtains, turn on the lights, lock or unlock the door and even raise the table.
      Curtains, screens and the home security system are all controlled by apps and remotes, and plugs and wall sockets are all secreted away.

      Big windows frame the scenery
      “The integrated TV cabinet wall and the wooden floor platform are plain and warm, yet hide a large number of intelligent devices,” said Lam.
      “The design is also integrated into the traditional Feng Shui doctrine, to create a spiritual space where tradition and technology, people and scenery are combined.”

      A raised platform in the bedroom forms a desk chair
      Eric, in particular, is a keen practitioner of Feng Shui, so Sim-Plex Design Studio carefully oriented the living space according to this. Maplewood was chosen to represent the wood element of Feng Shui.

      Pets Playground apartment in Hong Kong is designed for couple, a parrot and a cat

      “Although the traditional Feng Shui aesthetics and smart technology seems to be contradictory, if applied properly, they also have their compatibility,” said Lam.

      Wood was chosen for its symbolism in Feng Shui
      The open plan kitchen and living room freed up the old kitchen room, which has been converted into a third bedroom for the family’s live-in maid.
      Sliding doors can screen off the living area from the kitchen to create an extra fourth bedroom for when the grandmother comes to stay.

      A makeup table folds out in the bedroom
      Space-saving furniture has been used throughout, including rounded benches that tuck under the dining table in the kitchen area. More storage is integrated into the base of the chairs and the slim drawers in the tabletop.
      In the child’s room, the platform-style bed doubles as a chair for sitting at a desk, while the master bedroom has a hidden makeup table and the bed can double as a stool for using it.

      Marble tiles clad the walls in the bathroom
      The bathroom, with its marble-tiled walls, was modelled on a boutique hotel aesthetic.
      Sim-Plex Design Studio was founded by Patrick Lam and specialises in small space solutions for Hong Kong residents.
      The studio recently designed an apartment in Yuen Long for a multigenerational family – and their pet cat and parrot.

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