The Study, Reconsidered
How a Copenhagen studio turns a spare room into the most used room in the apartment.
The spare room is the most wasted space in most apartments: a bed nobody sleeps in, boxes nobody opens. The studio's argument is that it should be the best room, because it is the one you use alone.
Their version has three elements and no more: a desk under the window, a chair that is comfortable for a whole day, and a cabinet tall enough to hold everything the desk should not. The floor is left clear. The walls are left blank.
"Decide what the room is for. The furniture follows in an afternoon."
The cabinet is the clever part. It is a wardrobe on one side and shelving on the other, so the room can still take a guest, but the guest is the exception rather than the plan.
It costs very little. What it takes is a decision about what the room is for, which is the thing most people never make.
Keep reading
House on the Cliff
A concrete and timber dwelling above the water, where raw materiality meets refined restraint.
The Stair as Public Room
In a new Latvian library, the staircase is the building: somewhere to sit, meet and read, not just a way between floors.
Recladding the Seventies
A tired 1970s block in Zoetermeer gets a new face of coloured panels, and its residents keep their homes.