Design: Studio 1408
Project: RS Apartment in Bucharest
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Photographer: Cosmin Dragomir
The RS Apartment represents an experiment of materiality: Antithetic Juxtaposition of metal and wood, with the debut of a new finish in the local design language – Bluesteel. Metal sheets are heated and tempered in special industrial ovens. Reaching the temperature of 200 degrees Celsius, steel starts to progressively change its color in shades of yellow and red, then around 300 degrees it catches purple, blue tones. This technique is used by watch makers for tempering watch parts, giving them this beautiful, intense blue tint.
Wood and metal, opposites by tactile and visual perception, can actually match as a state: both are used here as rough, unfinished materials. This antithetical visual assembling reveals a pleasant, elegant interior, industrial scenery which is well-balanced by the gray shades.
From a functional point of view, the planimetry has been modified to suit the clients day-to-day needs, eliminating unjustified parietal obstacles. Thus, the space has been reconfigured to a more “plan libre” type and through it, also the way in which the habitation activities interact with one another; by this we improved the quality of living in these spaces.
In the same conceptual language, we have created scenographies that prevail throughout the transitioning of the spaces. The frames / perspective views form sequential compositions via collages of materials and volumes. These sequences appear gradually throughout the day, by cycling from daytime – exposing the compositions to natural, organic daylight – all the way to nighttime – presenting the true compositional scene of the soft artificial lighting.
