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A Large fish tank inserted into a wall of joinery is a stylish and captivating reference to the sixties, the era in which this apartment was a groovy pad the first time around. Forty years on, it exudes effortless cool once again -thanks to a comprehensive fitout by Sydney-based architecture firm The Superstudio.
With ocean views to hand, the intention was that the new interior take a back seat (albeit a highly-resolved one) to the visual impact of
the panorama. The success of the apartment hinges on the way spaces flow from one to another: colours, materials, joinery, all these dements combine to produce a sense of unity across the interior and exterior zones. The building itself -a simple, streamlined Northern Beaches medium-rise -has good bones and is well designed. Indeed, the existing rationalised room layout and minimal architectural detail made a good starting point for a program of further refinement. An uninterrupted wall of existing glazing across the bedroom and living area frames the view, and draws natural light into the apartment during the day. The spaces and furnishings are arranged to draw one's attention to the vista, as the main event, while also providing comfort and amenity within compact dimensions. The Superstudio team, Shaun Carter and Eva-Marie Prineas,
opened up the apartment as much as possible. Body corporate restrictions ruled out any changes to the external spaces, the footprint and the kitchen and bathroom plumbing, so the overall layout had to remain unaltered. It was a matter of working out what could be done, and affecting change via innovative joinery and canny storage options. "The existing U-shaped kitchen, which divided the space, was removed and a utility wall -which is partly for the kitchen and partly for the lounge -was created along one whole wall of the apartment," they explain. "This has an enormous built-in fish tank, and a pull-out
dining table (on wheels) and stools." Other joinery dements were introduced to the apartment to improve its amenity and streamline the use of space: the television was removed from the living room and housed discreetly in joinery in the study, and the secondary wall in the kitchen was designed as a pantry, with underbench wine storage at the end closest to the lounge.
The apartment is arranged as a logical sequence of compact utility rooms -kitchen, laundry, bathroom, study -occupying the western elevation, and a large interconnecting area on the eastern side, which incorporates the bedroom, living, and a commodious deck and terrace set up for outdoor dining and lounging. (The large outdoor area rests
on top of the building's carpark: the higher apartments have standard balconies.) The body corporate ruled that the existing external doors be retained: fortunately, these are beautiful original timber sliders which promote easy access to the outdoor spaces and leave the view unhindered when closed. The kitchen, having shed its restrictive U configuration, also enjoys a clear prospect through these doors to the outdoor living space and ocean beyond. Colours and materials have been selected to enhance this feding of connection between spaces. The existing carpet was replaced with dark grey polished concrete tiles, a soothingly sombre look that is carried through the apartment. Walls and ceilings are painted white to further enhance this restrained, harmonious aesthetic, and to help bounce reflected light around the apartment. (The existing vermiculite ceiling had to remain untouched, so a new plaster ceiling was installed to hide it.) As well as providing a foil to the dark floor, the dominant white turns the apartment into a blank canvas. "In this way, artworks become focal points on the walls," explain Shaun and Eva-Marie. "Also, the built-in joinery is finished in two-pack polyurethane paint, I the same colour as the walls, so that it merges into the walls and allows the single pieces of furniture to become objects of interest in the room."
Also in the materials palette, Victorian Ash solid core doors to the entry, laundry, study and bedroom introduce tonal warmth to this cool interior. Keeping to a sleek contemporary idiom, stainless steel door pulls and cupboard handles feature throughout, as do stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. Complementing the clean lines of the surfaces and the furniture - sourced variously from Richard Schultz, Finn Juhl, Gordon Andrews and FY2K -superfluous detail has been banished from the fabric of the fitout itself. "There are no skirtings, architraves or cornices," say The Superstudio. "The doors to the bathroom, bedroom and study are solid core pivot doors, so no jambs are required. And they are floor-to-ceiling doors, so when they are open the space flows between the open-ings, and the boundaries between different spaces are blurred." With its simple palerte and lack of fussy detail, the apartment has achieved an unclurtered feel that belies its compact dimensions. This is also aided by the clever positioning of mirrors in the walk-in robe
and bathroom to create the illusion of greater space. Also, the furniture has been thoughtfully positioned to invigorate the occupants vis-a-vis the view, and to promote the creative use of spaces. Banishing the television from the lounge was a poignant move, designating this living space as a zone for social interaction and as a viewing platform.
The television has been incorporated into the study, dubbed "the cave" because of the absence of views here. This strategy also created room for the pull-out dining table at the end of the kitchen living joinery unit, further underlining the social nature of this space. In the bedroom, too, the custom made king-sized bed is positioned facing the view -an inspirational sight to wake up to -with enough floor space behind the bedhead to turn the space into a walk-in robe. The use of artificial lighting proved an important element in the
pursuit of ambience in this abode. The place resonates with brilliant sunlight during the day -tempered by gliding panel shades -so the architects opted for a gentler, indirect strategy for evening illumination. Wall-mounted uplights are positioned to cast small pools of soft
light on the ceiling and across the floor. The ceiling in the bathroom is a large translucent light box, which gives the impression of a skylight. Paying due respect to the existing building, The Superstudio has conceived a liighly resolved interior that both celebrates a streamlined aesthetic and meets its occupants' needs. A sound existing interior has been improved further still by an intdligent redesign,
forty years on.
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