Apartment with a Colorful Kitchen by Grau Architects

The original layout of the apartment was dark as its depth and longitudinal division was unnecessarily extended. Grau Architects decided to reverse this. Hence, they replaced the longitudinal division with a transverse one and zoned an open space into three functional parts.

The main living area was extended to the full width of the apartment towards the terrace. In the second zone, as we call it, a kitchen and a bedroom are situated and share the same terrace view through the living area. The hygiene and toilet remain in the original place and form a third zone which ist the most distant from the natural light. From the terrace, we perceive the whole space as a scene with functional layers. The first one is the stage, the living area with a work space.

The second stage is the kitchen and bedroom, which are divided by a wardrobe and the last layer is the entrance area and hygiene. We divide these transverse layers with heavy curtains, which might also provoke views between the scenes of the apartment. Each of these nooks and crannies has its own specific spatial elements. We underline the kitchen with a colorful kitchen counter. The legs composed of proto-shapes resemble a historic dining table. We perceive this act as transforming the aesthetic table into a functional counter. In the bedroom, we highlight the space with a bed with a distinctive semicircular headboard and distinctive legs.

The whole apartment is a scene composed of objects in different layers, which changes due to the all-day process of being in space. The apartment was designed for a young, creative couple of musician and cameraman who live partly in Prague and partly in Bratislava.