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Black Islands
Black Islands
China
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Other Projects by Studio NOR
Black Islands
China
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2019
SIZE
1000 sqft - 3000 sqft
BUDGET
$10K - 50K
Black Islands locates in a residential tower designed by a Hong Kong architect in the beginning of 1990s in Beijing. The residential tower was designed with a diamond plan layout, which was very popular in Hong Kong back then. This plan layout leads to an undesirable 50 square-meter living room in a pentagon shape. Besides a short edge with floor to ceiling glazing for ventilation and natural light, the rest of the four edges are windowless load bearing walls. When you enter the apartment, you will see a large undefined space with unparalleled load bearing perimeter walls, and little natural light. How to fix this uncomfortable, and outdated layout becomes the primary design task for us.
As tenants, the client would like to keep the living room as it is, and all furniture to be movable. Six cabinets with different heights become the key element to define the living room space. Five of these cabinets are placed along the perimeter, which are either placed perpendicular or parallel to the living room walls. The one cabinet left was placed in the center of the space. With these cabinets in place, the large undefined irregular shaped living room is divided in to smaller space that more friendly to human scale for different programs, such as foyer, gallery, seating area, dining area, leisure area, study room, etc. Placing the cabinets perpendicular or parallel to the perimeter walls make the irregular space easier to adopt furniture layout. With the cabinet system adding in, the ungrounded irregular pentagon space is more defined without changing the existing situation of the apartment.
A set of furniture is assigned next to every cabinet to form a programed area. All cabinets land on floor directly, whereas all furniture is elevated to make the furniture look lighter, which will strengthen the spatial division by the cabinets. Every programed area is like an island. These islands radiate out from the central dining island with blurred boundary between each other to form a traditional Chinese garden experience for the residents of this high-rise apartment from last century.
As tenants, the client would like to keep the living room as it is, and all furniture to be movable. Six cabinets with different heights become the key element to define the living room space. Five of these cabinets are placed along the perimeter, which are either placed perpendicular or parallel to the living room walls. The one cabinet left was placed in the center of the space. With these cabinets in place, the large undefined irregular shaped living room is divided in to smaller space that more friendly to human scale for different programs, such as foyer, gallery, seating area, dining area, leisure area, study room, etc. Placing the cabinets perpendicular or parallel to the perimeter walls make the irregular space easier to adopt furniture layout. With the cabinet system adding in, the ungrounded irregular pentagon space is more defined without changing the existing situation of the apartment.
A set of furniture is assigned next to every cabinet to form a programed area. All cabinets land on floor directly, whereas all furniture is elevated to make the furniture look lighter, which will strengthen the spatial division by the cabinets. Every programed area is like an island. These islands radiate out from the central dining island with blurred boundary between each other to form a traditional Chinese garden experience for the residents of this high-rise apartment from last century.
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