Project #11

PROJECT #11 is an interior renovation to a 4-bedroom apartment for its new home owners: a couple whom entertains frequently.

To make way for a larger space to entertain and lounge around, 4 former bedrooms were reduced to 2 through the demolition of internal walls. This demolition led to the discovery of the inherent structure of the apartment. It is supported by structural shear walls.

The concept of using Walls as Spatial Organizers and Dividers in this open-plan apartment was then conceived.

A structural shear wall, that was left to stand in the center of the apartment after the demolition, was rendered black for visual focus and serves as a point of orientation in the apartment. It is a backdrop for a primarily black-colour home entertainment system in the lounge, minimizing its physical presence. In the Dining, it serves as a backdrop for an antique piano and Chinese Calligraphy inherited from the owner’s families.

A series of grey plaster and white painted walls radiate from this Black Wall to define the Foyer, Living, Lounge and Dining. These walls reveal and conceal the spaces it defines and changes one’s perception of them as one moves around the apartment. 2 horizontal ‘planes’, a white oak timber floor and a white-painted ceiling, connect all the spaces in this apartment in a singular gesture.

The result is a continuum of free-flowing spaces in a muted palette, accented in places by walls in a variety of colours and textures. These walls characterize the space it shapes and defines; a suitably blank canvas for the owner’s collection of furniture and home furnishing of different era and genre of styles; antique and modern, mid-century and contemporary.

Studio Wills + Architects
Lead architects: William Ng and Kho Keguang
Design Team/Collaborators: nil