implementation

2023

Square

Anastasia Reznikova

Аuthors

Author and chief architect of the project.
Author’s supervision

350 м²

Studio team ANRE ARCHITECTS

Сustomer

Development:

A young businessman living on 2 countries

CEO. Management and control of execution:

Working with the existing premises, we had the task of creating a modern functional, status, ascetic and austere interior with a masculine character for a young man — a businessman. A house where he can live by himself and receive guests.

We have achieved the desired effect with the help of a competent planning solution of two floors of the apartment and the use of certain finishing materials of walls and their proportions, furniture, structural solutions of ceilings and lighting.

This project is a combined, technically equipped space of the first floor of the apartment and the converted private summer roof-terrace into an independent full-fledged living space for year-round use with the possibility of transforming it into a summer open terrace with the help of sliding panoramic window and door systems and with a closed pergola area.

When developing the planning solution according to the client’s specifications, we were guided by the feeling of how the space would be used later on.

In this case, this space is designed for the permanent stay of one person — the owner of the apartment, when he is in the country, and the reception of his guests with the possibility of their accommodation for several days.

Entering the apartment we see a convenient entrance area with storage space and a separate dressing room, where there is enough space to store not only the owner’s belongings, but also for the guests' outerwear.

The living room-kitchen-dining room are combined into one quite spacious and comfortable space for recreation. In the kitchen area there is a large island, where you can gather a large company or admire the views of the city from the panoramic windows with a cup of morning coffee. In the soft zone of the living room the main element is a luxurious corner sofa Baxter in light gray nubuck, which will be comfortable and convenient for all guests watching a movie or having a pleasant conversation.

The private area, separated from the common area by an elevator shaft unit and a bathroom, houses three separate bedrooms, two of which are guest bedrooms and one master bedroom with panoramic windows on one wall and city views, as well as a separate master bath.

Working with a private roof-terrace, it was necessary to design not just a cold winter garden or an open summer terrace, but a full-fledged warm living space for year-round use, protected from external weather conditions (rain, snow) with the possibility of using it as an open terrace in summer. Thus, the upper summer roof was re-equipped by means of certain constructive solutions and technologies.

The layout of the second floor is designed in such a way that when leaving the elevator we get to a small corridor on both sides of which a small office and a kitchen working area are located.

The main element of the second floor is a living room-cinema with a large-format projector and panoramic sliding window-door systems on 3 sides of the living room with thick enough double-glazed windows to keep the heat in the room in winter. They also allow to use this area in the open state as a summer terrace. Part of the roof was converted into an adjoining to the living room not heated, but cozy covered pergola area, with IR heaters, cozy chairs, table and automatic roof with a precipitation sensor, which was important to provide in the changing climate to preserve the integrity of the furniture located in this area.

Also, being on the second floor, to use the kitchen, there is no need to go down to the first floor, as a small working kitchen area is provided on the second floor. And if the owner needs privacy for business matters, there is a small cozy office on the second floor, which is completely isolated from all other rooms with the help of sliding doors.

To unite the first and second floor of the apartment, a platform-lift was used instead of an elevator with a separate closed cabin, without additional walls, which allowed to optimize the size of the space used for the elevator shaft, to give the shaft itself an aesthetic look by means of tinted glass with automated glass frameless doors and smooth lifting of the platform. A light panel, mounted vertically to the platform itself and moving with it, was used as lighting.

The mood of the interior has a masculine character, as the owner is a young successful entrepreneur. Therefore, developing the general concept of the interior, its contents and internal display of space in the choice of finishing materials we gave preference to strict natural materials in black, brown, gray shades, such as metal, brass, glass, noble woods and veneers, leather, nubuck with various interesting treatments, as well as their combination and proportions of each of them separately and with each other.

For example, the walls in the living room were decorated with metal panels from the De Castelli factory in the TV zone and dining room with an interesting gradient transition of the color of the metal itself, tinted glass with engraved straight lines behind the TV panel. The framing of the entrance door portal with oxidized metal immediately upon entry conveys the mood of the interior. Noble woods and scratched veneer in the finishing of furniture, walls and dressing room, which shows the hairiness of its texture; the use of leather and nubuck in the upholstery of upholstered furniture and bed headboard area in the master bedroom, the use of black mesh material in roller blinds of one level, instead of standard translucent fabrics. The use of granite in the window jambs, which are not immediately visible to the eye, but are a finishing touch, a graphic edging of the entire composition of the space. The use of black color in the finishing of walls and ceilings, the use of rectangular shapes, lines (hidden skirting boards, shadow gaps, linear brass inserts in the walls), planes, softened in some design solutions by elliptical elements and circles, such as ceiling structures, semicircular brass cabinet handles, rounded corner of the wall at the entrance from the corridor to the living room.

From the panoramic windows of the apartment you can admire the views of the city from any room on the first floor and the living room-cinema on the first floor. If it is necessary to adjust the external lighting from the street to achieve partial or full shading of the rooms on the windows are provided roller blinds with an electric motor as a full light-tightness of dense opaque fabric, and with partial light penetration, for light shading of space, made of dark mesh fabric, which is not typical for this type of curtains, but with which we achieved the necessary effect of light shading and introduced a note of restrained drama.

The volume, spaciousness and airiness of the first floor rooms are given by ceilings 4.5−5 m high, the construction of which has been carefully designed and plastered to harmoniously perceive the space as a whole, without the feeling of a well and preserving the value of this height.

With such ceiling heights, the proportional perception of the rooms is quite different from that of standard residential heights. In order for the residents and guests of this space was comfortable to be in it, when finishing the rooms, taking into account their height, fractions and scales of all materials, shapes, dimensions of furniture were chosen according to other parameters than at standard ceiling heights. The very design of the ceilings is a multi-level system, with roundings on the inner perimeter, inscribed in the rectangular shapes of the rooms.

The visible level of the ceiling niches between the outer and inner contour of the second level of ceiling structures is painted black, which preserves the visual value of the ceiling height. Correctly distributed levels of ceiling structures, carefully plastered surfaces, certain lighting and technical solutions give the correct distribution of natural and artificial lighting of the room and proportional perception of it, without creating the feeling of a well, while preserving its scale and beauty.

In this way we got a coherent, elegantly restrained, modern interior that gives status and character to its owner. With an interesting planning solution of a two-storey space for comfortable living.

NExt Project