00:03parallel to the apartment are the gardens as well as the shrine we wanted the space to sort
00:09of be surrounding that view we're sort of designing the space without using the word
00:16walls where possible so it's more about what things can be so they have double uses none
00:26of the walls that you know define the bedroom or the bathroom or the kitchen space are a typical
00:31floor-to-ceiling wall the idea here is that everything's interconnected so you can look
00:37over the wall to the ceiling you can look up and it's expansive which makes it feel a lot
00:43bigger than the thing that we started with this apartment is located on St Kilda Road
00:56literally stone's throw from the center of Melbourne it's in its own pocket quite close
01:01to the CBD but also close to the gardens and South Melbourne market as well as the shrine
01:10the building was built in the 60s or 70s it's eight stories high we're on the third floor Brian and
01:19Amy
01:19live in Tasmania at the moment Brian works in Melbourne probably half of the year the space
01:26sort of functions as not only a space for him to work out during the week but also a weekend
01:31retreat for Brian Amy and their kids Amy is an art collector and so the space needed to sort of
01:39provide a backdrop to all the art that she's collected over the years we were approached by
01:46Brian and Amy looking for a space that felt really warm and tactile and cozy but also with the vision
01:52of reconnecting to the view so no matter where you were in the apartment to always be connected back
01:57to natural light and nature the original space was a one-bedroom apartment it was all quite segmented I
02:08think some of the proportions of the room so the bedroom was maybe a little bit mean a fairly
02:12conventional apartment layout that you see in a number of you know similar developments that kind
02:18of thing as you walked in the ensuite was connected to the bedroom on the left that bedroom sort of
02:25had two sliding panels that borrowed light from the main window with the kitchen up against one of the
02:31walls after we gutted the space it sort of made sense to keep the bathroom where it was in terms
02:36of
02:36plumbing and to also reconnect the kitchen back onto that side again for plumbing and services what we
02:44thought would be fun is just to rotate everything slightly so that it adds a new dynamic to the plan
02:49it goes from privacy at the back of the apartment shell and then as it moves towards the front where
02:55the
02:55glazing is and becomes less private as you enter the space there's a angled wall which appears as just a
03:04timber walnut lined wall but it's actually two oversized sliding panels the two panels slide past each
03:14other and they also slide past what is an art wall further down that wall this is like art alcove
03:22meets
03:22utility meets laundry meets cloak meets kitchen so it's all in there
03:32all the appliances are at low level in the kitchen and they're all integrated within this sort of like
03:37black surface behind those panels there's a fridge drawer by fisher and pikell as well as a dishwasher at
03:45low level your oven and your cooktop and new york marble benchtop and splashback
03:52it's areas like this that allow diffuse soft indirect light so yeah treating i suppose the skirting board
04:00or the raised kind of kicker of the kitchen cabinetry as another light source so it feels a bit area
04:06and
04:07lighter in its presence as you move through the kitchen into the living space it sort of wraps around
04:13creates a bench top to to work out or to sit and have your coffee out as you enter the
04:22living space under
04:23foot it's the same timber flooring from the entrance and this was actually from the existing apartment
04:29this is more in transit than a solid living room i think i suppose the main focus is the view
04:35and the
04:36natural light aspect it's a super multifunctional space for amy and brian who you know maybe they
04:42want to entertain guests one weekend or maybe they just want a space for one of them to come here
04:47and
04:47read a book one of the walls is sort of angled and two of the three panels are mirrored so
04:55that it's
04:55reflecting the view back into the space and also reflecting light back into the space amy and brian
05:01are really keen to use a projector so there's surfaces within the space that you can project onto
05:09amy collected these bricks that sort of mimic the materiality of the shrine
05:14it just really brings in another layer of tactility another layer of warmth and coziness
05:22the bedroom is connected to the living space but elevated through one step
05:27stepping up out of the living space into this kind of little nest
05:34underneath the plinth there's a little hatch so when you open that up there's a bed rolled
05:39in there for when and if the kids are visiting to bring that out into the living space
05:46there's a folding cardboard wall by a company called molo
05:51whilst there was this strong want to connect all the zones together it was also important to have
05:57an element of privacy if you did want to close the bedroom off
06:02the bedroom space is actually really really dark tonal color we thought that the charcoal and the darker
06:09tones actually make it warmer and feel more cozy
06:17working with the original you know constraints of the apartment building there's a large column within
06:24the bedroom but that also creates opportunity for more sort of implied art alcoves
06:32there's a window between the bedroom and the bathroom with a sliding hatch
06:39the bathroom space sort of starts from i suppose function to retreat so as you walk into the space
06:47behind the mirror door is a black toilet and dark charcoal walls and a basin and a mirror
06:54it's gothic bathroom yeah
06:59there's a joinery storage unit on the other side with the terrarium above and sort of diffuse lighting
07:08as you step up again that's sort of the bathing suite if you will
07:15with the shower and a little alcove on the left hand side and the japanese soaking tub on the far
07:21wall the bathtub is placed near the window which gives direct views to the shrine the idea was that
07:29while you're sitting in the bath you are almost bathing in the middle of the space you know like with
07:34the view direct to the park and the shrine beyond
07:40it's a rainhead shower with a floor pedestal basin adjacent and then framing that is a little shelf
07:47for putting your toiletries
07:53when we design small spaces we're looking at maximizing connectivity between spaces and creating
07:59spaces through materials through changing levels and looking at spaces as volumes
08:05obviously there's lots of constraints that come with designing small spaces but there's also massive
08:11opportunity rather than thinking about your your home as a small box it's actually a
08:16a whole myriad of all these things in the city they're exciting that you can go and use you can
08:23go and
08:23walk to walk to sort of learning to live with less rather than more and the realization that you only
08:29need so many things and the other things can be shared or they're not within your ownership but
08:34they're there for your enjoyment
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