2018 Gallery
Winner: Apartment or Unit
Brad Swartz Architects for Boneca Apartment
Aptly named Boneca Apartment (doll’s house in Portuguese) by the client – this 24 square metre apartment has a sense of luxury and refinement way beyond it’s size. Realigning the bathroom and kitchen created a long living and dining zone, and a screened sleeping alcove, both oriented to the view.
Jury Citation
With a growing appetite for micro-domestic space in the residential market, this tiny renovated apartment is a timely reminder that the division and articulation of territory
in the home is essential, no matter the scale. In this instance, the clear delineation between the functions of rooms and the public and private character of rooms is supported by the miniaturization of known spatial devices and practices.
While making its moves look simple, this subtle and sophisticated re-thinking of an existing 24- square-metre apartment is an essay in comfort, luxury and unexpected spatial depth.
Here, a singular and familiar architectural element, a sliding slatted timber screen, defines the function of the apartment at any given time. The position of this screen – there are only two – determines either a private room for sleeping or lounging, or a public room for cooking and socializing.
All the programmed spaces – bathroom, kitchen, robe, sleeping alcove – are clearly arranged into a single integrated core, yielding a living room comparable in scale to that found in a regular one- bedroom apartment.
This solution for thinking and living small is elegant, surprising and ambitious.
