This renovation project transforms a modest 70 square meter house into a modern home that accommodates a comfortable lifestyle for the client and family. The remodelling was carried out to reveal the true potential of the house, by reorganizing its spaces to create open-plan layout that avoid rigidity and bringing ample natural light. A significant premise of the renewed project was to establish visual relations within the living areas while maintaining privacy and intimacy in the living quarters.
Worthily named the “Post-Pandemic House”, the new design allows the occupants to adjust to the post-pandemic lifestyle of balancing home life with working from home. The original floor plan consisted of many internal walls and joinery, which created a compacted volume that did not share openings to receive enough natural lighting and ventilation (especially for the entrée), thus creating dark and stagnant spaces that were heavily dependent on artificial lighting and mechanical ventilation. Moreover, the arrangements of spaces compromised the privacy of its occupants as the position of the main entryway opens up to the living quarters.
The living room and the kitchen were too small, while the bedrooms were bigger in unproportioned way, storage room taking a lot of space and its full of useless things. Therefore, alterations were made to convert the house into a comfortable single-family home with an optimized layout that tackled these issues. Certain wallswere demolished to create space for additional amenities, while still maintaining spacious, voluminous livable spaces. The living, dining and kitchen areas are articulated in a continuous, open plan, which includes a cosy alcove as an office space, the new arrangement provides the privacy for the office space and maintains the visual connection of it with the rest of the open space.
A parametric timber ceiling pattern made of 101 pieces (45X30X2)cm, starts from the office and stretch out to emulate the sense of connection between the office, and the living space, thus maintaining the integrity of an open layout that encourages interactions between the family members. It also provides sound insulation, so that the family can freely enjoy their time together without the fear of causing inconvenience to the neighbours. Some pieces of the ceiling pattern extend to reach the floor creating a vertical libraries that are integrated totally with the pattern flow as they emerge from it.
The private quarters boast 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, including a separate laundry area. Both bedrooms have dedicated porches that extend the space to the outdoors, allowing the occupants to enjoy relaxing views from the solitude of their bedroom. The extreme linearity of the original bathroom was reduced by segregating it into two spaces using a wall 220cm height so it doesn’t reach to the ceiling which maintains the natural light/ventilation of the bathroom that equiped with modern fittings, and a small laundry room. This created dual spaces that can be used simultaneously.
The new layout includes generously allocated circulation spaces to ensure that the flow of everyday movement is not restricted, and all rooms include adequate storage areas. The material palette combines light timber tones and textures with monochromatic highlights to accentuate this modest spatial configuration. The interiors are furnished with hues of white, black and grey, which emphasizes the recurring timber tones. Great consideration was given to choosing slender timber sections, so that the details appear lightweight, and ensure that the interiors do not appear cluttered.
With its modern architectural style and refined details, the Post-Pandemic House breathes a new life into the design and brings a new sense of identity to its occupants, becoming a luxurious reinterpretation of a humble urban condominium.
Team:
Architect: Sipal-Wafai.Architecture
Photography: Marco Tacchini
