A studio house designed with Feng Shui

A studio house designed with Feng Shui

by | Nov 5, 2020 | PRIVATE APARTMENT, IN THE WORLD OF DESIGN, KITCHEN, LIVING AREA, LIVING THE HOUSE, SLEEPING AREA

Spaces where we live, as well as representing us, must have a positive influence on the quality of our life and has to be studied and designed in the best possible way. Even more when, as in this case, life and work take place in the same environment. Designing a studio home with Feng Shui means making these two aspects coexisting harmoniously in everyday life and spaces.

 

THE FENH SHUI

We have often heard of Feng Shui, but what is it? It is certainly neither a philosophy, nor a religious or spiritual practice, it is not a style of furniture and not even a form of bio-architecture.

Feng Shui can be defined as the study of how natural and built environments influence our psychophysical conditions.
Practicing this discipline means understanding how the various elements of an environment that affect our physical conditions, our moods and our behaviors, are activated by our primordial instincts. These include: shape, proportions, symmetry, number, color, tactile sensations, sun exposure, artificial light, sound and attention paths.

Feng Shui literally means “wind and water”, in honor of the two elements that shape the earth. In fact, with their flow, they determine the characteristics of a particular place.
It could be said that the profound meaning of this discipline is “Creating the best conditions for the development of life”. Its goal is to make an environment suitable for the people who lives there or for the activities that take place there.

In fact, each of us relates to the room in a non-verbal way: what surrounds us inspires us with emotions or instinctive reactions of which we are almost always unaware and some of these are universal for the human species.

Matter of Feng Shui are these sensations and to work on the human psyche we act on the physical world.

feng shui

A STUDIO HOUSE

The greatest representation of the coexistence of home-work based on Feng Shui is this realization in the Lombard capital. Our client, a holistic operator, needed an ambivalent space in chaotic Milan to be used both as a residence and as a location for her courses.

For this reason, she turned to Marzia and Germana from SpazioUmano to make the apartment as suitable as possible for her needs through Feng Shui. The housing unit on two floors is located in the context of a condominium still under construction, chosen near the city center.

Having always been sensitive to Feng Shui, we have followed the two architects with pleasure. Reading and interpreting their design choices in the best possible way has been a source of inspiration for us and a professional challenge accepted with enthusiasm.

Each building has a recognable front and a back. This polarity determines the orientation of the house in the space that is symbolically guarded by two celestial animals: the black turtle and the red phoenix. The first is associated with protection and health and it is identified with the most intimate areas of the house such as the bedroom and bathroom. The red phoenix is ​​instead an indication of freedom and identified with the entrance and the “active” areas of the house.

The other two animals supporting the main ones are the green dragon, linked to our more rational left hemisphere and therefore synonymous with organization, home management and work, and the white tiger, linked to the more intuitive right hemisphere, therefore associated with emotionality and artistic activities.

THE PROJECT

Being a home-studio, the active areas of living and working had to coexist according to Feng Shui principles, in the part of the red phoenix, but still be separated from each other.

The access to the apartment is therefore characterized by a scenic aerial staircase illuminated on the right side by a large glass wall. This staircase, made with white painted aluminum support and wooden treads, leads to the upper floor used for holistic courses. The instinct is to go up, choosing to be accompanied on this almost emotional path of ascent.

On the opposite side of the large window, the access to the private house is out of sight. A sliding wall decorated with a spiral geometric pattern with opal inserts hides the everyday life’ interior. The light coming from the outside filters through the opal shapes of the sliding wall, creating plays of light inside the apartment.

The living area that opens to the view is an open space with a square plan, whose kitchen is placed on the corner opposite the opening.

Feng Shui entrance
Sliding wall Feng Shui
Wall Feng Shui

A FENG SHUI KITCHEN

The entrance with living area is characterized by the presence of a full-height corner bookcase, where vertical and horizontal shelves gives rhythm. Small objects and books become the real protagonists, standing out among the matt lacquered MDF profiles of the bookcase.

In front of this, the low open cabinet with doors and internal shelves visually closes the room by introducing the kitchen. The latter is arranged at an angle and anticipated by a large table in natural oak and support profiles in black iron. Above this, a witty and youthful light point with suspension elements of different shapes that intertwine on the horizontal support element.

Further element of character are the chairs that surround the table, with bright colors and simple profiles.

The actual block of the kitchen is made up of mutually intersecting volumes, creating a rhythm and visual dynamism also reflected in the material choice of the coverings. On the one hand, the block with service columns which also houses the free-standing refrigerator and built-in oven. Doors in matt lacquered MDF are interspersed with natural and dark-stained oak inserts, creating visual dynamism.

At the front, the basaltine countertop is transformed into a backsplash and back surface in the firing area, giving life to material and luminous contrasts with the uniform riser in white Lacobel.

The overlying wall units best express this play of intersected volumes with open compartments in natural oak that alternate doors in matt white lacquer and inserts in dark stained oak.

Natural materials with a soft touch blend perfectly with darker and rough inserts. Distinctive signs can also be recognized in the lower volumes, such as the drawers with oak fronts that underline the horizontal reading of the kitchen.

Feng Shui lights kitchen
Side kitchen oak doors
bookcase entrance laquered white
Kitchen table oak wood

ADVICE

Designing a multipurpose interior means being able to bring together different aspects of everyday life. Especially when it comes to connecting the working world to the private one, the home environment plays a fundamental role so that nothing can be left to chance. Choosing to design with Feng Shui involved in this example the coexistence of instincts belonging to two aspects of our life, in a single home-work environment.

We are ready to calibrate your daily and working space on the basis of your needs and desires, in order to create interiors in perfect harmony and balance even with your inner “I”.

A cerulean blue modern kitchen

A cerulean blue modern kitchen

by | Jul 30, 2020 | PRIVATE APARTMENT, KITCHEN, LIVING THE HOUSE, STYLE TIPS

The cerulean blue hue defines the stylistic firm of this modern kitchen, set on dark wood tones with brass finishes. The care of detail gives shape to an extremely elegant project, modern in aesthetics and contemporary in settings.

Modulor modern kitchen with dark tones_01

The on-view composition

An interior that becomes furniture. The design of this kitchen diverges from the traditional vision of the closed room to become an open space composed of different volumes.
The main block is a visual union of the low volume in ribbed wood set between wall units with a vertical subdivision and full-height columns.

The common thread that contain the perception of the environment is the brass base, taken from the light and linear handles.
The island block with rounded shapes and overhang countertop, elegantly conforms to the main volume, despite a stylistic change in the design forms.

Indeed, it is this difference between the straight and geometric shapes of the back unit and the rounding of the profile in the central island that defines the stylistic imprint of this kitchen.

The traditional closing shoulder is replaced by a recessed library that visually lightens the perception of the kitchen characterizing the furniture. A full-height bookcase compartment that alternates shelves in a well-balanced geometric composition.

recessed bookcase side abutment
bookcase abutment division sleeping area
Modulor modern kitchen with dark tones_02

Functionality and aesthetics in symbiosis

Not only the general volumetric setting, but also the internal organization demonstrates a perfect relationship between functionality and aesthetics.

As a demonstration of this, the central island is equipped with rounded corner doors in order to make the best use of each available corners.
Shaped white shelves stand out among the dark tones and blue doors of this modern kitchen, showing all their functionality. The choice of appliances is also avant-garde, as for example the induction hob with attached extractor hood that reduces the functional components to the essential in favor of visual essentiality without sacrificing the practicality.

Modular kitchen island ribbed wood
open door with shaped shelves

Colors and materials

Cerulean blue matt lacquered MDF, dark ribbed wood and brass are the protagonists of this modern kitchen in which dark tones are chosen for their elegance.

A rigorous environment that is being fascinated by contemporary functionality.

The chosen shade of blue, extremely modern, is enriched with a warm appearance especially when combined with the dark-dyed ribbed.

It is precisely the materiality in the latter’s finish that enriches the main volumes of the kitchen with movement and rhythm.

The brass of skirting boards and handles, underlines the design lines with a precious character that gives refinement to the project.

Modulor materialboard
Modulor modern kitchen with dark tones front view
Modulor materials finishes

Advice

The choice of colors and materials often defines the character of an interior. We are often intimidated by intense colors and dark tones, especially if imagined on large surfaces. The final impact can instead reserve great surprises, and give a touch of freshness and modernity.
Here is another example, in this case a dark gray kitchen with oak inserts.

How to equip a bathroom with laundry corner

How to equip a bathroom with laundry corner

by | Jul 22, 2020 | PRIVATE APARTMENT, LIVING THE HOUSE, SLEEPING AREA

A functional and aesthetic analysis of the laundry corner. An environment that in contemporary reality is forced to give up its autonomous room to blend in a small bathroom or equipped corridor. The aim is giving space to the services that define our daily life, making them aesthetically interesting.

laundry corner

Laundry corner with showed washing machine, basin and compartments furniture

equipped corridor

Optimize spaces equipping corridors with serviced wardrobes View the project

Space to services

Speaking of interior design, we are used to imagine elegant living rooms and modern kitchens, contemporary bedrooms and essential-style dining rooms. Over the past few years , the interior design has increasingly taken on the aesthetic meaning of architecture. Let’s remember, however, that design was born as the perfect combination between aesthetics and functionality. The morphology of furniture is nothing else than the natural result of perfect efficiency. It is exactly with this spirit that we want to highlight those “corners of the house” that we usually tend to hide because they are not “beautiful” even though they are basics in the functionality of our domestic spaces. The project layout of each house gets us used to dividing rooms between “living area” and “bedrooms”. The first includes all those rooms that are used to welcoming guests, designed with the aim of return the best public images of the owners. In the “sleeping area”, the most intimate and personal rooms of the owners come to life. However, in this typological distinction are missing all the rooms which, whether private or public, carry out a real function. Among these, just think of the laundry room, which over the years has changed its conformation adapting to the needs of the time.

washing machine recess

A laundry niche uses the available passage corner to house the washing machine and shelves View the project

From public washrooms to bathrooms equipped with laundry corners

Over the years, the home laundry has become increasingly important in private houses. Whole rooms were equipped with basins and ironing corners, which gradually witnessed the coming of appliances capable of simplifying manual work and obtaining excellent results. Private rooms that replaced the traditional public lavatories for an increasingly elitist concept of personal care and cleaning. The widespread use of washing machines, and modern dryers, has meant that laundry rooms take up less and less space inside private houses. Furthermore, in the contemporary vision of the house, open spaces have swarmed the architectural panorama more and more, reducing the functional closings to the bare minimum. As a consequence, to optimize space, the laundry room is often eliminated in favor of bathrooms equipped with washing machines, dryers and service cupboards. Making the appliances “invisible” was the next step. Here then come equipped wardrobes able to hold not only washing machines and dryers but also baskets and pull-out compartments for cleaning products.

laundry bathroom detail

A bathroom with contemporary wooden surfaces hide extractable functional elements. View the project

Composition of a laundry-corner

Equipping a bathroom with a laundry corner first of all means providing an insertion point for the washing machine. This can remain visible, favoring the opening of the porthole without interfering with any surrounding doors or being built-in the washbasin cabinet. To better hide the washing machine, however, it is necessary to provide a service cabinet that rests on the ground. It means excluding suspended solutions or light supports, and study a customed solution that allows the opening of the tray and the easily maintenance of the appliance. To this is often added a service cabinet with internal shelves and removable baskets that can contain cleaning products and accessories of different sizes. Often these latter two solutions come together in one, with folding or sliding doors, which act as a closure for the furniture element. Internal accessories such as dividers and hanging elements are additional options that can make the space more functional and optimize the overall dimensions.

bathroom with washing machine in view

The bathroom cabinet with wooden top and finishes houses the washing machine View the project

bathroom cabinet with open drawers

Drawers of different heights are extremely functional elements for organizing personal products View the project

bathroom service closet

A large service cupboard with internal shelves and removable basket for the bulky products View the project

It is the functionality that defines the composition of these equipped corners. Our task is to optimize spaces in the best possible way by creating practical and aesthetically satisfying solutions. Whether they are service points hidden in other rooms or clearly visible and recognizable elements, it is essential to be able to organize them in the best way, using all the available centimeters without however giving shape to narrow solutions.

An Emperador Marble kitchen

An Emperador Marble kitchen

by | May 22, 2020 | WORK IN PROGRESS, KITCHEN, LIVING AREA, LIVING THE HOUSE, PRIVATE APARTMENT, STYLE TIPS

A monolithic kitchen, entirely covered in marble, shows all its elegance in a project that emphasizes such a precious and distinctive material. Walls and surfaces, in Emperador marble, are recognized for their very dense and varied white and beige streaks on a warm gray / brown background. Such a sophisticated design line can only be accompanied by modern and innovative mechanisms.

THE PROJECT

The renderings provided by Tanya Kutzmina, a cosmopolitan Russian designer we had the pleasure of working with, immediately show the intrinsic characteristics of the project. The concept of the master kitchen, part of an open space, encloses high walls and monolithic surfaces in an ambivalent environment, inert at first glance but able to transform itself into an equipped and representative kitchen for the guests of the house when needed. Two types of marble alternate in this large space. On the one hand, Emperador dark marble, which symbolically defines the functional parts of the kitchen, becoming a scenographic setting for “acting”. On the other, Emperador light marble, clear and bright, which amplifies the perception of the environment by reflecting the light of the large windows and embodies the essence of everyday life. Living and acting therefore become the reading keys not only of the stylistic composition of the rooms, but also define the way to relate to them.

marble kitchen render 01
marble kitchen render 02
kitchen island sliding mechanism
Emperador marble kitchen render 02

THE COMPOSITION

The structure of the marble kitchen is an island and the central monolith opens with a drag mechanism that becomes a snack corner. Opening, it also shows a cooking area with three different types of fires: induction – teppanyaki – grill. On the internal front there are drawers entirely covered in the same marble and equipped with cutlery holders, crockery holders and potholders. Above it stands a splendid custom-made hood in stainless steel, as large as the island, equipped with filters and LED lights. All made with laser cuts and remote engine preparation. The dark marble of the island spreads into the floor and flows into the back wall. An ingenious book system opens the central doors folding up into two side compartments and revealing a broken interior that houses a sink, a dishwasher, baskets inside the doors, an oven column and exposed shelves with underlying LED lighting. The stainless steel top and back give a touch of modernity between the eternal elegance of the Emperador dark marble with which the surrounding surfaces are covered. On both sides, two large and spacious refrigerators enclose the central block of the kitchen. The covering of the Emperador light doors continues along the entire adjacent wall, hiding an access door to the second service kitchen. At the center of the room, a huge table stands for several diners in dark Emperador with bases made to measure in stainless steel and marble. These counterbalance both visually and physically the grand plan.

 
Emperador marble kitchen Moscow
island render Moscow project
island project Moscow 02
Emperador marble kitchen Moscow
island render Moscow project
island project Moscow 02

THE REALIZATION

Creating this kitchen was a new, arduous and stimulating experience. We accepted the challenge by finding solutions to the various executive problems that immediately arose. Among these, the union of two materials, wood and marble, so different in finishes, weights and typological characteristics. Obtaining the dynamism of the kitchen, with mechanisms suitable for the fluid movement of the parts and the arrangements on site for their perfect functioning with different materials and systems, required a lot of attention and an active collaboration with Tanya in Moscow, who followed the construction site. The marble, which was provided to us by Marmi Galli, a company with which we have been collaborating for long time, was used in 2 distinct thicknesses: 20 mm with 45° cuts to cover all the structures, and 5 mm thick screened for the application on the retractable doors to guarantee the functioning of the mechanisms with respect to the weight. We have taken great care of the quality of the mechanisms and the guides, both manual and motorized, especially for the doors of the shelf and the island snack top. We leave this video of Tanya the task of accompanying you in the living area and guiding you to the kitchen. Seeing it accomplished is a great emotion for us and awards our commitment.

The Moscow marble kitchen project fits perfectly into the series of single-material projects we have made. Among them, a kitchen entirely covered in steel.

 

Organize rooms with a secret library

Organize rooms with a secret library

by | Nov 14, 2019 | IN THE WORLD OF DESIGN, LIVING AREA, LIVING THE HOUSE, PRIVATE APARTMENT

Organize the room can be a difficult task, especially if this room is small and not very functional, but often the solution is just around the corner: in this case, around a corner library which hosts a secret door. THE PROBLEM ANALYSIS THE PROJECT PROPOSAL COLOURS, SHAPES AND MATERIALS THE ADVICE  

THE PROBLEM ANALYSIS

Living in big cities often means to interacts with the lack of space and environments with small dimensions. In those contexts, the functionality it’s an indispensable design element: It allows us to take the most advantage from each room without sacrificing comfort and aesthetic values, while at the same time it solves important problems. The functionality is not just the added value to our interiors, but first at all a stylistic key. A proof of that is this Milan’s apartment. The entrance overlooks a comfortable and contemporary living room characterized by light colours of walls and furniture which create a contrast with an elegant wooden dark floor with which it harmoniously communicates. The design challenge provide for two mainly solutions: on one hand the lack of a real library, which can easily become a characterized element of the room showing at the same time small design object and souvenir able to describe the personality of its inhabitants. On the other hand, the need of hide the bath entrance which is more intimate and private, whose door faces directly in the living room, in a contact view with the entrance hall.  

THE PROJECT PROPOSAL

The design solution manages to solve both problems in a single functional element: a wall unit able to provide display support for books and small objects and, at the same time, combines the real bathroom’s door. A dynamic bookcase that reflects the intentionally asymmetric layout in both corner elements. Taking advantage from the corner position, in fact, the two different components of the bookcase are organized as autonomous elements whose shelves could easily become the stylistic line enable to give rhythm and harmony.  This, defines the internal recess of the library which allows the management of exposed elements as a costumed setting, a sort of display windows of the inhabitants’ personalities. The entrance to the bathroom takes place with complete discretion, as a sort of a real “secret passage”, activated by pressing. In particular, the door consists of a fixed narrower shutter, even equipped in the bathroom’s ambient, and a main shutter that in its external side has a considerably bigger thickness than the traditional in order to accommodate books and small objects.  

COLOURS, SHAPES AND MATERIALS

The contemporary imprint is visible both in the graphic layout of the library, which combines full and empty space in perfectly harmony as in a typographic composition, but above all for the material and chromatic choice. In particular, a white opaque lacquered MDF was chosen to create the partition wall. This because it allows a better versatility clearly visible for example, in the different thickness with which were made the numerous internal shelves. The 9010 white recalls the dining’s wall and the contemporary furniture, inserting itself without intrusiveness in the room but at the same time managing to define the stylistic print.  

THE ADVICE

No problems had to remains unsolved! Sometimes a furniture element becomes the custom-made solution able to solve in the best way different problems, as it can be the lack of space or the need to divide rooms.

The wall units perfectly combine elegancy and functionality and can also contain hidden mechanism to take the most advantage from its practicality. A mechanism that can also be fun! Divide the rooms has never been so easy, a library with a secret door it’s enough.

 
corner secret library
open door corner library
closed door corner library

A kitchen entirely steel covered

A kitchen entirely steel covered

by | May 18, 2018 | KITCHEN, LIVING THE HOUSE, PRIVATE APARTMENT, WORK IN PROGRESS

A kitchen completely covered in steel but with a soul to discover.

STRUCTURE

Sometimes when in front of our eyes there is a piece of furniture entirely covered with a material, it is assumed that that external material is the only one used in its composition, it is not easy to thought that behind that facade there may be a skeleton of a different material that creates its structure and defines its entity. Here we want to show you how we have created a kitchen completely covered in stainless steel destined to a client in Boston.

CONSTRUCTION STEP

First point, the internal modular structure: in the central part, the elements of  sink, dishwasher, hob and all our storage elements. In the upper part the wall units and on the side the columns hosting other storage elements and appliances, such as ovens and a refrigerator. For some elements, a back is not necessary, as in the case of the refrigerating column, because the element will be perfectly inserted inside and it will have access to the electrical outlets on the walls.

kitchen steel assembly step 01
front view lab phase

Then the bases, the rear elements and the doors are made. The whole structure is made of wood and, once assembled, with precise millimeter drawings, all the covers of the various elements are made of very thin stainless steel sheets. these will completely cover, without weighing down, our skeleton. Here are some pictures of the kitchen ready to be dismantled and shipped overseas. On each steel element is visible a protective film in order to preserve its surface from scratches and accidental impacts.

 
stell kitchen with protective film
assembly test lab phase

And here are the latest images of our kitchen assembled on site, in a general view and in a more specific detailed one, which highlights how, in the upper part, our structure perfectly follows the exposed beams of the ceiling. The recessed handles that characterize the entire kitchen are also clearly visible.

steel kitchen on place
covering details

CONCLUSIONS

To conclude, never take anything for granted! Behind every realization there is a great job that concerns multiple aspects. From the management of impeccably precise executive measures, to the creation of complex structures that support and enhance the materials used in the final result.