AIR PLAY - [Sydney]

LIGHT AND AIRY INTERIORS boost the sense of spaciousness in this compact one-bedroom warehouse apartment to maximise the dwelling’s opportunities to deliver quality of life for its inhabitants, in a project helmed by Eva-Marie Prineas, principal of Studio Prineas.

How did you become involved with this project? E-MP: Returning to Sydney after seven years working abroad, our clients approached us to rationalise the design of their one-bedroom, inner-city warehouse apartment.

Familiar with our ‘Nanopad’ project which was a redesign of a 22-square-metre Art Deco apartment, the clients tasked us with a similar brief: to make better use of their compact home through thoughtful design moves and to elevate its spatial qualities with humble yet high-quality finishes.

Their understanding of our previous work meant they were happy for us to lead the way. What were the challenges of the space and how did you resolve them? The true value of architecture and design is expressed in problem-solving and embracing challenges as an opportunity, we believe. While this is a small project for our studio, the apartment offered a valuable testing ground for new spatial strategies and modes of expression.

The smaller the project, the more detailed and hard-working the design needs to be in order to take advantage of every possible opportunity. It is meticulously planned to optimise the apartment’s potential, dynamically improving amenity and experience, infusing the client’s daily rituals with a feeling of connection and purpose. What was the starting point for the interiors? We started by evaluating the plan to maximise the dwelling’s spatial opportunities.