The Brief
A walk-up apartment, designed in conversation with the building it sits in.
The design of this double-storey walk-up apartment was drawn from the beautiful elements of the old block itself: the well-crafted ventilation blocks on the facade and the original timber doors at the balcony. Quod followed those cues into the home, giving the interior a tropical, south-east Asian influence that feels rooted rather than applied.
The clients love to bake, and one of the most important items on the wish list was a kitchen island for baking. Quod planned an island that doubles as a dining table, maximising its utility, and made it the centrepiece of the main space on the first storey. Nostalgia, here, is a working part of the plan.
A baker's island
The wish list began with one clear request: a kitchen island for baking. Quod planned it to do two jobs at once, working as a baking surface and as a dining table, so a single piece of joinery earns its keep all day. It sits at the centre of the first storey, the place the home gathers around.
The IslandOne piece of joinery, two jobs. A baking surface by day, a dining table by evening.
Cues from the old block
The character of the apartment comes from the building it belongs to. The well-crafted ventilation blocks on the facade and the original timber doors at the balcony set the vocabulary, and Quod let that vocabulary carry indoors. The tropical, south-east Asian influence is not a theme laid over the home; it is a continuation of what was already there.
The HeritageVentilation blocks and original timber doors set the tropical vocabulary the interior continues.
The quieter storey
Upstairs, the apartment settles into its private rooms. The same tropical warmth carries through in the materials and the handling of light, so the upper floor reads as a continuation of the home below rather than a separate world. It is the calm end of a house built around a kitchen.
In Closing
A home that remembers
The ventilation blocks and timber doors were already there. The work was to listen to them, and to let the apartment carry their tropical character inward.
At its centre is an island built for baking and for gathering. Nostalgia, made useful.
Q.E.D.