Clovelly Apartment

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The design intent prioritises connection to the landscape, proportioned composition and spatial rationality over everything else. The calm material palette and fine detailing of the interior provide a simple backdrop to these three driving forces. Although the apartment sits in an existing 1960s block, the design of this home is very much site-specific and client-specific. The design of the apartment is subtle and refined. It employs sophisticated composition and rigorous detailing whilst retaining a sense that the home is a humble, comfortable and approachable series of spaces. With the remanence of the previous floorplan revealed via the expressed steel beams that weave between joinery units, this project tells an optimistic story of breathing new life into an old building and apartment typology. From a big-picture perspective, this project might be looked at as an effective development model for units in other 1950s/60s apartment blocks. The ordeal of undertaking major structural, plumbing and electrical modifications have been vastly outweighed by the upside of additional amenity, increased functionality and the improved light, space, views and quality of life. RELATIONSHIP TO CONTEXT In the context of contemporary living, the original apartment has been completely reconfigured to better reflect modern priorities and lifestyles. We have maximised the efficiency of the floorplan (62sqm 2bed apartment), engaged with the ocean views and have delineated between private and public spaces. In orienting the consolidated kitchen/dining/living space longitudinally toward the ocean, living spaces are prioritised and intimately connected with the view and natural light. Living spaces are bright, serene and ever-changing whilst the private spaces are proportioned to be more intimate, dark and calm. PROGRAM RESOLUTION The function response to the brief is best exemplified by the dynamic joinery wall that runs the length of the apartment. It connects the bedrooms to the light and views, it negates the need for partition walls, its composition is well proportioned and is finely detailed. Although the bedrooms and bathroom are immediately adjacent to the living spaces, you don’t have a sense that they are there. The series of ‘secret’ pivoting panels separates the private spaces from the public spaces and anchors the kitchen/dining/living against the ocean view backdrop.