A second home for a professional with an itinerant lifestyle, this apartment was designed to create a sense of stability and repose between trips. The crux of the spatial intervention was the opening up of the existing linear compartmentalised space into an upbeat, almost studio apartment-like setting. The highlight of the narrative was the kitchen block that was delineated into a detached cuboid, free from the ceiling and walls, that would serve both as a bar and a serving counter from the living room. The distinction was intensified by sheathing it in copper — giving this house its name ‘Copper Cube Haus’. The burnished cube overlooks the living area with its compact sofa and a small dining cum discussion table, while alongside it, a passage leads to the bedroom in which various volumetric strategies optimise its compact space. Volumetric play optimises the bedroom at Copper Cube Haus from its modest dimensions. The response is articulated as a modular birch-ply box that is strategically scooped out to accommodate various requirements in the form of built-in arrangements — including a handy push-up bench between the bed and wardrobe to keep the luggage of the itinerant owner. The adjacent black glass mosaic-clad toilet incorporates a copper accent in deference to the copper box of the kitchen.