Apartment at Livia

Apartment at LIVIA
Interior design of a 110 sqm apartment in Singapore

I was contacted by the owner while his wife was still pregnant with their first child. Before the conceptual design was firmed up, their child was born. It then occurred to me that the apartment that I was designing would be the first space that the newborn child would live in. The idea that the apartment would accompany the child's initial years of growth became a key design concept.

One of my intentions was to design a space that would be fun and interactive for the children, without making a creche out of it. The living room was the ideal space to express this balance between adult sobriety and juvenile playfulness.

The TV wall - with a client requirement for space to store a thousand classical music CDs - was designed to be plain, white rectangles as seen at adult eye level. However, from the much lower view point of a toddler, the underside of the shelves are colourful and filled with bright lights. The concealed lighting are meant to light up objects displayed on the shelves.

CD shelves, with lit open shelves for display of client's collection

Matching rectangular lights were specially selected to match the rectilinearity of the wall design

Brightly painted underside of CD shelves to arouse children's interest

Not having particularly green fingers, the client opted to have the planter decked over to form a balcony. Instead of the usual timber strips, I proposed an artificial turf finish that would, despite the absence of planting, create a little play garden within the apartment. With its highly textured surface, and being much cleaner than real grass, artificial turf could be a fun and tactile experience for children. To top the playfulness of the space, I added a ceiling-mounted swing to the balcony. By locating the swing beside the sofa set, the swing also doubles up as an informal seat, and extends the living space out into the balcony.

Living room - decked balcony with swing on left, CD shelves and TV console in centre

Swing and artificial turfing on balcony

Contrary to the original intent, people in Singapore hardly ever sit on bay window ledges, probably due to unpleasant heat gain from the glazing. To make better use of the excessive bay windows in the apartment, I proposed custom cabinets that are suspended from tracks and not wider than half the window width, allowing the cabinet to slide laterally and the windows easily accessible for opening, closing and cleaning. This also allows the window to continue its function of natural lighting and ventilation. Where possible, translucent materials are used for the cabinets, to allow for more light transmission. The box-up of the tracks also serve as a pelmet conceal blinds and curtain tracks.

Sliding suspended shoe cabinet at vestibule

Sliding suspended vanity cabinet in master bedroom, with built-in mirror and lighting

The client needed a study room that would be versatile enough to be converted into a child's room. At the same time, the existing wardrobe in the master bedroom did not provide sufficient storage space. To resolve this issue, I proposed to demolish an existing partition between the two rooms and one wardrobe in the study, and replace the partition with a full height cabinet that would consist of interlocking storage space. Most of the cabinet space would be accessible from the master bedroom, while the middle section would be the tabletop space of the study.

The bay window of the study was designed with a operable tabletop that could be lowered to form a bed. A sliding suspended cabinet is also included in the bay window here, to maximise storage space.

Interlocking cabinets - Left: Cabinets accessible from master bedroom, with centre recesses for wall-mounted tv and console space beneath; Right: back of the cabinets within adjacent study