There is a lot to be said for living in the city,
There is a lot to be said for living in the city, where you can have everything that you want and need
where you can have everything that you want and need right on your doorstep.
But there are challenges,
But there are challenges, city real estate can be very expensive.
And sometimes that means living in a smaller space.
Thankfully, good design can come to the rescue.
And that is exactly the case with this next, stunning apartment
that we're about to visit, here in Northern Australia.
Hey Doug, how's it going, mate?
Hey Doug, how's it going, mate? Hi, how are you?
Hi, how are you? Great, thank you! Really nice to meet you!
Great, thank you! Really nice to meet you! Nice to meet you too!
This is a very cool part of town that you're in, isn't it?
(chuckle) Yes, in the "it" part of town.
Now you're an architect, aren't you?
Now you're an architect, aren't you? Yes, yes I am.
So this must have been a really interesting opportunity for you to create something very special in your own home.
Yeah it was a bit of an experiment, so this used to be a
and was then converted to an apartment.
So when I came along and saw the plan, I thought that it could use an update.
Well, I am very excited to check out the inside of the apartment and see how you transformed it!
Can we check it out? Sure, after you.
Thank you very much!
This is such a great-looking space!
It's super-interesting the way that you've done all this.
It looks like that you've essentially constructed everything out of plywood.
Yep! I do want people to come in and see the apartment in
So what size is this apartment?
It's 28 square metres, it's roughly four and a half by six metres.
What was some of the key characteristics that you wanted to put into this apartment?
I think it was quite a primal instinct to
have a cave as you come in
and then open up toward the light in the next room.
So coming in to the kitchen and seeing a glimpse of
the light beyond is quite something.
So the existing condition of the apartment was really luxurious
in the sense that they had a full bath in the bathroom.
So, you know, the bathroom becomes a lot more utilitarian
than potentially what they used to have.
And I've thought the kitchen should absorb a bit of that space.
So what I did was knock down
load-bearing walls in this apartment
and to provide a clear space within the internals of the apartment
we put in a beam and the beam runs across the width of the apartment
It's about 7.4 metres
And what it does is it picks up the load from above
It's keyed into the walls on either sides,
and allows me to place walls as I want in the internal space.
And, talk to me about your kitchen space!
So I found that 1.8 metres is all you need for a kitchen.
And the width is quite limited, so
what happens is if you go deep
then you find you have more than enough space
for prepping food and then
maybe washing vegetables, and then
you just move out to the side
and then when you're washing up
the dishwater is where you need it to be on the right.
And what about the storage in the kitchen?
The storage is full height
it's just to give you that sense of space in the kitchen
and what happens is you can access it from both sides
so practically when you're reaching for food stuff down here
on the other side, there's a step-up that allows you to reach the items that are a bit higher-up in the cupboard.
It's really interesting what you've done here
because you've got these very beautiful, modern fixtures
that are built in with plywood
But it's offset against the original brick in the building.
Yeah, so high contrast is what I'm after
And I like what you've done here with the space for putting your shoes.
the detail was just to create an alcove for the shoes.
And then I see you're even hiding a washing machine in there as well!
and there's a washer-dryer combo.
kettle, rice cooker
and then it flows into a sort of threshold space.
And then before moving into the living space proper,
we have your bathroom in here.
Right, so what I wanted to do is have the tiles
visually continue from the kitchen to the bathroom.
And then at the end of that you have this full height
into what is actually a very small space.
It certainly does.
One of the things that I especially like in the bathroom is the way that you've done the lighting.
Having that light panel come through from the living room is such a nice touch.
small space
and that feeling is intensified by the colour of the tiles
and the proportions of the bathroom
so what I wanted to do was to have light at both ends
so you can still have that feeling
of openness and extension of light
even though it's a small space.
So it's about contrast again offsetting dark against light
about textures
That is undoubtedly something that you have done very well in this space.
Thank you.
Now I am excited to see what you've done in your living space!
Can we check that out? Ok, step through!
This is just so nice.
It's so interesting, the way that you've created
these two very different feelings/spaces inside the home.
The first area with the kitchen and the bathroom
felt a little bit darker, a little bit more enclosed,
and then walking into this space,
you just have a complete
here it's just a living space
so it's more about that feeling of relief as you come in to the light.
So the irony is that in a tiny apartment
what you want to do is to create some separation of zones.
So the functional zones as you enter
and the clear living space for the bulk of the space.
And what we did was think of the functionality of the three zones,
at the front, there's the kitchen, this sort of little threshold/wardrobe.
and then there's the bathroom.
The arrangement of which creates this combination of a portal and
And then we have your workspace here.
Now this is a very important place in your home
because obviously you're an architect and you do a lot of your work from home.
Yeah so, it's nice being able to be in the space,
in the mornings especially, and then feeling the sun
shift from this side over to the west
throughout the day and feeling that passage of time
within the living space.
And talk to me about the workspace that you've created here.
pushes the boundaries of what is practical
In this instance, I wanted a work desk
All the clutter and
and then what I do when I wanna play