The project is located in an old small area of the Hangzhou Riverside. The top floor is a duplex plus a one-story attic with a total area of 223 ㎡. The owners are a young teacher couple who have a wooden dog. The owners' desire is very clear: they want the home to be a relaxed, self-contained space where they can enjoy life to the fullest, free from restraints and constraints.

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Design Overview

We try our best to integrate all of our customers' needs into every aspect of the space in the clearest and simplest way possible to make it look like a home away. Emphasize the atmosphere and ambience of the home through concise material partitions. At the same time, the space is minimized, allowing sunlight at each time to outline a corner of the contour.

Although it is located on the fifth floor, thanks to the evergreen greenery of the old area, you can see the lush greenery outside the window at the first sight of the entrance. In order not to spoil the integrity of the window view, but also to facilitate the cleaning of the windows in the future, we set a small hidden window on the edge, silently serving this greenery between them.
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Shiba Dog and its Paradise

When we first went to the client's residence to communicate, we found the puppy in the house quickly and skillfully hiding under the coffee table, and in subsequent communication we learned that it was naturally shy, seeing that the living would hide and watch in the dark. As the conversation deepens, we learn that the owner, who works as a teacher at a nearby school, occasionally invites colleagues and friends to a small family home, and they also want the restaurant to stay tidy and spacious on weekdays, so that it has the dog and its multipurpose garden. The Dog Park Tunnel consists of 10 stools and a space at the bottom of the dining room. Stools can be folded daily to keep the restaurant clean and spacious.
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hallways

The sunken entrance, independent but not closed, opens the door to the right and offers a full view of the kitchen until you look out the window. To the left, through the gap in the suspended floorboards, you can feel the sunlight pouring in from the living room floor window.
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Kitchen & Restaurant

We have converted the dining room into a home cafe with a bar counter, a long table and a spacious window tray. Enjoy a relaxing time here with the first cup of coffee in the morning and a cup of tea in the evening.
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Living room and study

From the restaurant through the corridor next to the stairs to the space where the living room and the study are located, the sofa is separated from the middle as two areas, the TV in the corner, more often playing the role of the music playing the background of the space, the hostess likes to record her “Human Observation Diary” while sitting in front of a spacious desk, then The man's favorite tennis racket hangs on the wall of the hole board. The window in front of the desk is also filled with green spaces for reading and writing, and from time to time you can glimpse the scenery outside the window. IN THE EVENING, THE SUN SPLASHES ON THE GROUND THROUGH THE WINDOWS OF THE BATHROOM ON THE FIRST FLOOR, ALMOST CLIMBING THE EAST WALL OF THE LIVING ROOM.

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2F Public District

The atmosphere on the second floor will seem more serene, the space is relatively independent, the master bedroom and the future children's room are located on this floor, while another smaller room is made into a multifunctional tatami room. Since the toilets in the whole house are not spacious and there are no bedrooms designed on the first floor, we have spared the bathroom on the first floor from the shower facilities. To this end, we designed the bathroom on the second floor with three separations, ensuring that the functional areas can be used simultaneously, and also increased the comfort of the bathroom. Washing, drying and other functions are all placed in the sunny room on the north side.

The area between the stairs is small and high walls on all three sides. In order to make the staircase look transparent, we have opened glass windows in the Tatami room and the main bedroom walls separately to relieve the feeling of oppression and dullness between the stairs.
We turned part of the original living space on the second floor into a separate shower room. The shower room did not include all the windows, leaving a gap to allow the sun to penetrate at any time.
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bedrooms

Both bedrooms are equipped with spacious walk-in wardrobes that fully meet the needs of neat storage of everyday clothes and bedding, keeping the space tidy and organized. The bedroom uses only pure white and warm wood colors, without unnecessary cumbersome styling, creating a quiet and comfortable resting environment, giving a feeling of tranquility and relaxation.

The walk-in wardrobe is located between the master bedroom and the stairs, and we have installed long windows at the top of the wardrobe to allow the good lighting of the master bedroom to penetrate the wardrobe and stairwell. As the project enters the softness phase, it is worth the summer vacation for the owners. They want to be more involved in the home floor process, so we have designed a range of furniture that includes dressing tables, bedside cabinets, dog kennels and more. We carefully draw detailed assembly instructions, process the furniture into the form of panels. In the end, the owners completed the assembly of the furniture by hand. The house mainly achieves air circulation through the ventilation system, and the windows in the children's room are designed with all-round glass for better visibility and safety.
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Painting room

The entire space of the attic is used as a drawing room for the hostess. The basic functions of the original top surface, insulation, and waterproofing are preserved. Refresh the white paint, knock on a row of storage cabinets, then place removable tables and side cabinets, creating a very atmospheric creative space. If you are tired, you can relax on the terrace, which is full of stones outside. We set the depth of the storage cabinets based on the height of the slope, avoiding hitting the ceiling in the low areas.

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Project Information
Project Name: Renovation of the old house of Noje Apartments
Designer: A great design studio
Project Design: 2022.5
Completion time: 2023.9
Design Manager: Wang Cheng
Design team: Wang Shing, Wang Yuen
Project Address: Hangzhou Binjiang
Project Area: 223 ㎡
PHOTO COPYRIGHT: HONG JIANGPING
Material: Birch plywood, stainless steel, tile, wood flooring, paint
BRAND: YOTO NOGUCHI, IKEA, MUMO INK
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