Project: Residence W / Location: Taoyuan, Taiwan / Designer: fws_work / Location: Brooklyn, N.Y. / Photographer: Suiyu Studio
This apartment overlooks the Taiwanese city of Qinpu, a place known for its fast development and transportation hub. As a result, Taipei and Brooklyn, N.Y.-based fws_work designed it to bring a sense of tranquility for the owner.
The owner, an airline pilot, spends most of his time constantly traveling between different countries with short stays. For him, home is a haven to provide a sense of relaxation at the moment when he arrives home.
To respond to the owner’s desire for relaxation, fws_work used tactile materials, such as plaster and oak wood, as the essential backdrop, accompanied with woven cane, ribbed glass, encaustic ceramic tiles and linen furnishings to form a sensory warmth. In addition, custom millwork details bring a sense of warmth. The selective material palette and joinery details evoke the client’s memories of a country home in childhood, as well as Mediterranean retreats experienced during his travels.
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The firm combined the entry, kitchen, reading, dining, and living areas in a light-filled, open-plan space to enhance spaciousness and flexibility, while focusing on creating intuitive circulation based on the client’s routines. “The intuitive circulation is defined by freestanding fixtures, such as the half-height divider connecting to the reading desk, and the extended kitchen counter,” the firm says. “Meanwhile, the existing heavy structural beam is clad with oak wood panels to visually separate the laid-back living and dining area from the function-driven reading and kitchen space, and softens the visual heaviness of the structural beam.”
Contrasting with the laid-back feeling of the overall neutral palette, the black stained wood millwork, encaustic ceramic wall tiles, leather handles and stoned countertop shape the moody kitchen and extended bar counter. The darkness of the kitchen and bar counter fosters a pure state of immersion, allowing the client to dive into his passions for cooking and whisky tasting. The warm shelf lighting penetrates through the rattan cabinet door, accompanied by rear reflections of glasses and tableware that enrich the backdrop of dining moments.
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Connecting the open area with bedrooms and a multi-functional room, the transitional hallway is wrapped with oak panels and plaster walls. The firm replaced the partial partition wall with layers of woven cane panels and ribbed glass to draw sunlight deep into the hallway. They also provide privacy and sound insulation for the room. Aligned joinery from walls to the ceiling creates depth and dimension when the light shines. In addition, the circular wall light on the end echoes the circular mirror in the entry and balances with the straight-lined design language throughout the house.
“In addition to the neutral palette consistent with the open area, the deep teal color blurs the boundary between the upper wall and the ceiling, bringing a sense of serenity into the bedroom for rest after a long day,” the firm says.
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