Uncovering Stories

Owners fell in love with the apartment due to its bucolic setting. From the existing mosaic tiled staircase to the vent-block walls, the apartment spoke to them intimately from many angles. An ideal place where they would like their young kids to grow up in.

When we visited the site, the bucolic environment spoke to us in many ways. From the ground floor entrance to the potential hidden high ceiling inspired us to “uncover the past stories” of the apartment. We decided to strip off all the hidden parts such as plaster of the brick walls, false ceiling to expose the hidden roof rafters, etc. The intention is to start the journey of an honest discovery of the existing apartment; embraced by a bucolic environment, layered with the modern lifestyle of the young family.

We re-layout the space to create a larger living area, integrated with island coffee counter, dining area, a reading corner and a window tea space with their existing furniture. The island top stands below the column supporting the large span pitch roof like a feature object in space. The marble was specially selected from a huge slab that speaks intimately to the clients. Timber flooring covered the whole living area to form a cozy contrast to the white and high ceiling space. A seamless horizontal window across the whole living space provides ample daylight and unobstructed view to the matured tree of the development. Filtered daylight through the existing vent-block external walls cast moving shadows on the entrance staircase throughout the day.

The exposed roof has both structural and finishes issues. The original wall layout helped to support the large span pitched roof even though they are not exactly critical to hold the roof structure. As the roof is a continuous shared roof as other units, we needed to add structural support to double ensure that the roof is still comfortably supported without compromising on the design and usage of the space.