apartment 26D

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apartment 26D

Firm

Type

Residential › Apartment

STATUS

Built

MODO was approached to refit an existing 2 bedroom apartment. The ‘L’ shaped apartment resulted in an odd floor plan. With narrow living areas, enclosed kitchen/laundry and deep corridors, the spaces are all squeezed together on a small footprint but at the same time disconnected. Most of the area becomes compartmentalized, resulting in dull and weak communal spaces.To encourage a communal space, the kitchen was reconfigured and pulled out to the center of the apartment. The cooktop and sink run along the side of the length of the wall, while an island bench intervenes the space and sits in the middle of the room to encourage a communal hub. On either side of the kitchen is the entry and the living room.A floated hardwood timber panel is wrapped around the lounge room, creating a clear distinction between the other shared areas. The folded timber lining also creates a framing effect to capture the view beyond. As the timber descends down the wall, it folds out to form the entertainment joinery. Recessed LED strip lights at the ‘fold’ throw out soft ambient light.With the old entry and layout, one could easily enter apartment and not interact with the kitchen or the living room. Now at the door, a new joinery unit is introduced to define the entrance, functionally the unit also contains a pull-out shoe store and a cushioned seat. The seat is great little spot slip on/off your shoes and perhaps share a conversation with someone in the kitchen.A mirror is mounted to the back of the entry door and wall, when closed it reflects the opposing view and psychologically lengthens the living space. The illusion not only serve to enlarge the feeling of space, it also rebounds natural light into a once-dark spot.A common problem in apartments is the lack of good storage, in this example the spare bedroom has been transformed into a large cupboard. The proposed strategy is to remove the internal walls to form one comfortable size bedroom, the new storage ‘cube’ is built between the new bed and study. The ‘cube’ is both a centralized storage solution and a space divider. Packed into the ‘cube’ is a double WIR, file drawers, shelves, display shelf and a single pull-out mattress for the occasional guest.By carefully positioning the ‘cube’ within the space, the new layout removes the need for traditional deep apartment corridors. Sitting the form distinct from the entire volume, allows the spaces flow between each other. The rooms are now loosely defined instead of rigidly compartmentalized, this encourages the areas to be flexible and overlapping – a great way to ensure there is no wasted space.A single bed slides out of the ‘cube’, which quickly transforms the study into a handy guest room.In small spaces, dining tables are often larger than required and pushed up against a wall to save space. Resulting in a inflexible furniture which takes up a valuable floor area.The bench of the island bench cantilevers out, creating a enough space below the bench to slide in a standard dining table. Rather than of pushing the table against the wall and restricting the flow of space, the table slides neatly under the bench to form a small meals table for two. When needed the table can slide back out to cater for a small dinner party.Overall the project eliminates un-useable corridor spaces to create an apartment with open living, organized storage solutions and flexible/adaptable rooms.Photos by Rogan Coles

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Michael Ong

architect

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apartment 26D

apartment 26D

Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team