00:00This apartment is located in the inner west of Sydney in a suburb called
00:03Murrickville. Known by locals as the warren because it's a sort of rabbit
00:08warren of an area. The apartment is in a three-storey walk-up built in 1960 and
00:17the unit is one of 18 in the building. This apartment is 49 square metres.
00:33The client had a very clear understanding of what they wanted. They
00:37wanted to carry the same ambience that was in this place already over to the
00:40renovation. However he needed vast improvements to functionality. The client
00:47is certainly not interested in reductivism and he will continue to
00:51accumulate things so ample storage was very very important. We removed a series
00:59of walls that divided the master bedroom from the rest of the apartment and we
01:03shifted the sleeping space into what was the old bathroom. The old bathroom went
01:08into what was the old laundry and what was the master bedroom became an art
01:12studio and a sleeping space for guests. By removing the walls we decided to insert
01:18a really large storage pod into the centre of the unit. The new insertions were
01:25realised in mirror gold. The reflective gold is really quite dynamic in that it
01:30reflects the light and it amplifies the effect of all of the trees and the plants
01:36that the client has dotted around the apartment.
01:42Inserting the pod enabled us to demarcate spaces and distribute zones and that pod
01:49contains all of his clothing, general dump storage, a laundry, art supplies and also a
02:02niche where he can create art. We used black in the art space niche. It's quite
02:08reductive. It doesn't detract from the effect of the mirror gold. It's much easier
02:13to keep clean with all the mess related to the art and there's some continuity
02:17because the front of the pod is imagined entirely in black.
02:22The sleeping nook is where the original bathroom was. We're conducive to fitting a queen bed.
02:29The gold panels make the sleeping nook feel like a much larger space than it otherwise would.
02:35The sleeping nook is elevated by two steps so that we can store a pull-out bed underneath,
02:43so that on the other side of the pod, a bed can be pulled out for guests
02:49and the room can be shut off with the use of a curtain that retracts from the pod.
02:57The soft light that emanates from the junction of storage pod in the wall draws the eye through to the
03:03rear of the space.
03:08The client had a desire to have plants in every space within the apartment and that included in the bathroom.
03:14So we created a small soaker tub come shower and then a secondary tub, if you like, to house a
03:22garden.
03:24We used the reflective white tile and a white shower curtain to create a very light, airy and bright space,
03:31which is offset with the polished gold tapware.
03:37The kitchen has all of the functionality and amenity of a regular kitchen, however, it's completely concealed.
03:42All of the appliances are hidden because it was important that the kitchen be probably the most recessive component within
03:48the design.
03:50There's an underbench integrated fridge, oven, dishwasher, cooktop.
03:58There are no overhead storage.
04:01Instead, that space has been reserved for art to again help the kitchen blend into its environment.
04:09We decided to paint the walls in a semi-gloss rather than a flat paint
04:14and the paint continues from the walls up to the ceiling.
04:19Even with all of the decoration, there's a calmness and a continuity to the space
04:24because the tile pervades every space.
04:29This sort of building stock has great access to light and to breeze.
04:35And by removing all of the partitioning in the apartment and starting the layout again,
04:39the spatial organisation again, we've unlocked a whole heap of new potential.
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