In Search of a Silence

Compared to houses with landscapes such as mountains and the sea, urban dwellings in most cases have poor views. We think that areas where urban dwellings are built are often relatively inward-looking. “A spiritual habitat of its own” is the starting point of our project. The owners are a young couple who, like most urban Chinese, commute between their home and a high-rise office building. The two love to read books, stay at home, love the warm feeling that wood gives people. We designed a warm, quiet home for them, trying to find a quiet place that belongs to them in the bustle of the city. Minimalist interior lines, warm red oak finishes, without too much intricate decoration, enter into a pure and abstract landscape that immerses one in a calm, liberated spiritual world. Perhaps, this is what we can find in poetry and in the distance.

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One multi-purpose, multi-purpose studio

The project is a renovation of an old building in the 90s in Pudong, Shanghai, with a building area of 72 ㎡. We remodeled the house on its original foundations and introduced three sets of custom furniture - cassette sofa, full-wall bookshelf, tatami and rack, to achieve a functional combination of the common core area and the study room.

By adjusting the entrance line, open the existing kitchen to form a new entrance gate - open kitchen - breakfast bar counter - multifunctional common core area flow line. The new entrance gate includes a storage and shoe change space. A multifunctional desk sofa, a wall-mounted bookcase, a 2m long table, a dining cabinet, and a viewing curtain combine the functions of the public core area to make a multipurpose and multi-purpose studio. Space should free itself from the definition of so-called room names for its functions, and instead achieve a diverse interaction between people and things, by acting to define the functional properties of space, thus achieving functional complexity on different time dimensions.

The multifunctional cradle sofa enhances the spatial depth of the entire public core area and expands the visual effect. At the same time, it also integrates functions such as sofa, dining chair, TV cabinet, book bar, makeshift bedding and storage. The alternation of wood with white, minimalist abstract lines brings us into a kind of “stillness”, with the whole world having only its own voice. Leaving white is to allow the light to travel better in space and allow the soul to rest. Throw away the concept of the traditional living room and bring the space of “books” into the home. An entire wall of bookshelves satisfies the homeowner's habit of reading, making a cup of coffee, picking up his favorite books, and in the gentle light, feeling the tranquility of the years. The leisure and entertainment functions of the traditional living room are integrated into the “restaurant” space, where the practice of “eating” is closely combined with social and entertainment, and the urban population often takes the opportunity to watch and entertain while eating. The original sleeping space was converted into a multifunctional study according to the homeowner's needs. Desks meet homeowners' home office needs. Tatami with a lift table and storage rack combine the functionality of the study room. On weekdays it can be used as a tea room and meeting room, and guests can also stay as a temporary guest bedroom. And tatami itself has powerful storage functions, as a complement to whole-house storage.
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Poetic daily life

Life is like a long echo, diesel salt-and-vinegar tea, and everything is reduced to flatness. Everyday scenes suddenly have some poetry, and poetry takes us far away. The master bedroom features a suspended bed with a simple half-height woodgrain background wall design. The suspended bed gives the whole space a feeling of lightness. The rich, distracting light effect of the blinds makes the space rich in texture. The converted open kitchen area is connected to the multifunctional communal core area via a breakfast bar. The breakfast bar is both an extension of the kitchen countertop and a place where male and female hosts start their day interacting.

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Project Information
Project Name: Log & White
Designer: Suzi Design Studio
Project Design: 2022
Year of Completion: 2023
DESIGN SUPERVISOR: LIU SUYAO
Design Team: Liu Su Yao Wang Zehin
Project Address: Shanghai Pudong
Building Size: 72 ㎡
Photography Copyright: Local Narrative ｜ Zhang Yangyang
Material: Tile, wood finish
Brand: Small Stickers, Flügger Folklore Court, IRONPLUS
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