Project: A Place of Elegant Comfort
Architects: Gao Architects
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Site size: 179 m2
Completion date 2019
Photo Credits: Miran Kambič
We designed the apartment with a special sense of love for the family living in it – it was their openness, hospitality and unwavering trust that gave meaning to this project and allowed us to create a space that is in tune with their desires. In furnishing the previous apartment, the clients swore by a minimalism in white, so we tried to hang onto this softness and freshness as a guiding stylistic principle as we designed the new home, also enhancing the details by means of pleasant contrasts, soft colours and materials of various textures.
By removing the partition wall, we opened up the main horizontal feature from the entrance to the bedroom, thus allowing light to cascade through the entire area. The bedroom, meanwhile, is a lively little oasis that combines spaces for bathing, sleeping, and closets.
The bedroom is artfully enhanced by means of Wall & Deco wallpaper and a stand-alone countertop adorned in glittering ceramic Florim Alabastri di Rex tiles, above which a brass mirror hangs independently from the ceiling. Black, glossy Gessi taps complement the Antonio Lupi glass bathtub, which is reflected in the warm, brown mirror on the wall behind it. On the opposite wall, the wardrobe is made complete by a crafted DelightFULL wall light.
When we were designing the living area, balance was our guiding rudder. The kitchen area is symmetrical and graced on both sides by high counters. The kitchen island, with its contrasting colours, functions like a photographic negative to the light colours of the counter and the cupboards hanging above it. The living compounds run along a central axis and move in sequence, thus providing a sense of functional symmetry and balance.
We found inspiration for the intimate sense of spatial freshness and sophistication in an oil painting by the Slovene painter Metka Krašovec. This central and only work of art, which adheres to minimalism on one hand and dominance on the other, became an indispensable aspect of the apartment.
The living area is complimented by the interesting design of the Bon Bon dining table, by Pottocco, and the organic softness of the Patricia Urquiola couch set. The lights are soft, simple, and of a warm LED colour. The French Herringbone parquet is of a carefully selected format, oiled and friendly to users and the environment alike – like the majority of the carefully selected materials, the parquet contains no artificial coatings, varnishes or dangerous substances, entailing that it breathes with the space.
