Project: White Duplex
Interior Design: Yuri Borges Design Co
Location: Santa Catarina, Brasil
Year: 2021
Area: 50 sqft
Photo Credits: Fábio Jr. Severo
This is an experimental and personal project. My name is Yuri, I’m an interior and product designer and I’m a founding partner of a coworking and coffee space in Blumenau called Offcina; and my partner Carla is a journalist, she works with brands and has a great appreciation for creating new things.
We, along with our grumpy and fluffy cat Louie, live in a 50m2 duplex loft: the first floor is the living room, kitchen, service area and toilet, and on the second floor is a suite.
We want to live in this apartment only for a few years, therefore, we wanted to try and experiment a lot — using materials that were bolder or different for us was one of our premises, for example. In addition to being beautiful for our taste, the White Duplex needs to be very functional to receive our intense daily movement, divided between time for work, leisure and taking care of the house itself.
We are an urban and dynamic couple; we like to spend a lot of time at home — reading, watching movies, cooking during the week — and having friends over for a drink of good wine.
The goal was to create a project that allowed dynamism in various aspects of life even in a small space. So, we opted for various rounded furniture, which generated fluidity in the movement of the house, as well as creating different environments, which allowed for us to have privacy in our daily routines.
The inspirations for the apartament came mainly from contemporary Scandinavian architecture and design, which aims to be simple, accurate in lines and colors, but seeks to display personality, create warm and welcoming environments. And, of course, references were sought from small places — cabins, lofts, houses — to find storage, space layout and movement solutions.
With a large personal collection of books, objects and decorations, the choice was to create an environment that accepted those bright colors and details that denote our individual personalities. Therefore, the choice of white as the base tone of the apartment, furniture in light wood, in addition to some details in black and golden metals, for example.
