00:08This apartment is located in Melbourne in the middle of the city, in a building
00:13formerly the Victorian Railway Administration Office. The original
00:19building was built in 1893, then in 1997 is converted to its current form which
00:27consists of 240 apartments. Half of it is now the Grand Hotel.
00:36The client's brief to us is simple, it's just creating an apartment that's suitable
00:41for her lifestyle and for her cats. She doesn't cook much, there's eateries,
00:47takeaways right at her doorsteps. Occasionally she does wanting to invite guests
00:53and families over. The apartment layout is quite different originally. There was a
01:00bedroom closed off by low walls which sits in the living space and there was also a
01:06kitchen that's tucked away to the darkest corner of the apartment. This apartment
01:11only have a single sunlight aspect to the northwest. First thing we did was to take
01:17down the low walls creating an open plan living. The major move we did was switching the bedroom
01:23and the kitchen location. We're showing bedroom will be in the darkest corner and that's okay,
01:28whereas the kitchen becomes part of the open plan living. That way every single
01:32corner of this apartment gets the daylight.
01:37So when you first enter the door there's a full height unit to your right hand side which is
01:43actually part of the kitchen. It consists of the fridge and pantry. The important thing though is
01:48a small nook that consists of the coat hangers for your bags, for your coats, even umbrella stand
01:55is incorporated into it. Then the main kitchen is to the left of that. The new kitchen layout is right
02:04in the middle of the open plan living so we want to make sure it's quite recessive and quite picturesque,
02:11like a gallery. We avoided the high storage and keep it as clean as we we can. Working with that
02:19we also
02:20chosen a white cooktop so it camouflages into the benchtop. In terms of the benchtop we use a
02:29Korean material is an engineered solar material. What it allows us to do is achieve an eight meters
02:36continuous, continuous benchtop. The material even wraps down to form the sink and the vanity.
02:45There's a central L-shaped lounge in the middle of the space facing a TV credencer.
02:50The TV credencer then extends to form the integrated seating for the dining.
02:55We designed the TV credencer to hide as much storage as possible and there's even more storage below the seating.
03:07We custom designed the flexible table. It also doubles as a study and working desk.
03:14So in normal configuration it is a round table suitable for a couple or for a single person.
03:20However the table leaves can be folded out to form a table for a bigger gathering during the occasions
03:27when you invite guests and families over. The bedroom is located to the original kitchen. We created a
03:35timber nook to define the area and to provide extra sense of warmth. The whole thing is housed under a
03:41timber arch ceiling that also mirrors the original restored archway. The extra layer of the timber archway
03:48also provides additional noise barrier since the apartment is located so close to the train line.
03:56The full height mirror obviously increases the size of the space. There is wardrobe to the both sides of the
04:05room.
04:08There's even a nook on either side as well that doubles as a bedside table and more storage.
04:20The sleeping is done by a queen size murphy bed that is hidden behind the full height mirror in the
04:26walk-in robe.
04:27The use of lighting in the space we want to create a sense of warmth so we use indirect uplighting
04:33to create a sense of softness.
04:40The bathroom is accessed by a secret door next to the kitchen. You have the kitchen bench top
04:46that flows into the bathroom that forms the vanity and the toilet behind.
04:57The bathroom also houses the laundry and we even put the hot water unit in there halfway up the ceiling
05:06for space saving.
05:11I think there's two reasons to repurpose an old building.
05:14one of course is to address the housing issues but just as importantly it maintains it tells the story
05:22the history of the city and so for me i think that is a very sustainable way to look at
05:27the housing issue
05:28in a growing city.
05:33you
05:38You
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