The apartment is located on the ground level of a 4-floor building. The mono orientated windows overlook two small courtyards delimited by high walls. The existing organisation comprised of small rooms and a long corridor that prohibited natural light from flowing into the space. The clients had moved from a house in the suburbs to live in the city centre and wanted us to give them a calm sanctuary where they could stay whilst enjoying high-paced city life. We decided to work on the concept of an oasis, a Zen and minimalist apartment in which they could rest from the noise of outside. Amidst our ever-expanding cityscapes, we find ourselves with less and less space to come to relax and enjoy quiet living. This project aims to subvert the traditional need for a big house as the only way of finding a sense of rest and ease, with an easy-to-maintain, calm and bright apartment that reshapes high-density living in close proximity to Sydney CBD.
The first challenge was to flood as much natural light as possible into the apartment. The living area has been opened up with a large space for the kitchen, dining and lounge. The back of the unit, the darkest side, has been shaped by batten timber screens that anthropomorphically curve along the walls. They become illusional shutters, concealing dimmable LED tracks that allow a variation of the light, adapting to the luminosity level of the day. The spacious volume and minimalism of design, materials and colours create a quiet, secluded timber cocoon in which the clients take refuge.
We have retained and celebrated traces of the building’s industrial history in material choices and features such as the large concrete beams used to create light coves. The curved screens soften the atmosphere with organic lines the contrast the brutalist rigidity of the concrete flooring, bringing the warm familiar texture of wood into the living space.
The programme of a one-bedroom apartment simplified the organisation of the layout. All the partition walls were demolished, and the plan was rationalised to open the space to daylight. Storage is seamlessly integrated throughout the apartment and concealed behind the lightbox feature. Varied ceiling heights create spatial and programmatic separation, retaining high ceilings for congregative, social “day” areas and lowered ceilings for intimate “night” areas. A new, open circulation has replaced the existing dark, long. The bathroom, relocated at the back of the apartment, still receives natural light through an opening to the living area, tucked behind the timber batten screens.
The entire internal architecture and design of the unit was handled by Brooke Aitken Design. Secret Gardens designed the courtyards in keeping with the concept a minimalist and Zen apartment that we specified for the interiors. The big concrete planters resonate with the materiality of the interior concrete floor and the suspended plants hide the high wall of the courtyards, serving to reinforce the feeling of the oasis in the heart of the city.
