Case studies

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Project Description

Often you don't even need to turn a home upside down to make a big difference. In this house, every function remained in its place; only a little demolition of walls was needed to radically renew the family's living space.
This family home, built in 1946 and covering 85 m2, is located in the green suburbs of Buda, home to a couple and their high school and university-aged sons. In the 1980s, the previous owner renovated it, and its traces are still evident. The bedrooms are located in the attic, and there is not much room for change. However, the family spends most of their time on the ground floor in communal areas, so they want to make this space more modern and comfortable.

Layout 

Despite the relatively large floor area, the layout of the apartment is impractical and difficult to use. The wide hallway occupies almost 10 m2, and the two identical rooms open out of each other in an unfortunate way. The first has only a dining table for entertaining and a spiral staircase to the attic, while the back bag room is the living room. The family's living space is mainly limited to the kitchen, especially because access to the garden and terrace is exclusively from here. The task is to eliminate the unused areas so that the entire apartment maximally serves the family's comfort. The first step is to consider the functions and their space requirements. Fundamentally, they are not in the wrong places; there's simply no connection between them, even though the kitchen, dining area, and living room form a cohesive, organic unit.

 

Open Up Space!

To allow the apartment to "breathe," i.e., to gain better-proportionedand more transparent spaces, it is necessary to eliminate the separation of rooms. At such times, you must draw on the floor plan the paths required to access various functions, and you immediately see that these paths are intersected by walls. Fortunately, there is no obstacle to demolishing them, as the walls under the beam running through the middle of the apartment are thin and have no structural role. The primary goal is to open up the living room toward the kitchen and, by extension, the garden. To achieve this, the toilet located between them needs to be removed, but it can easily find a new place near the bathroom. A pantry is necessary, so it remains but in a different size. The original kitchen layout is not ergonomic at all, with little storage space, and the fridge only fits in the pantry. The new layout is much more practical, with a kitchen island providing plenty of storage, and the family's favorite breakfast spot remains. This way, the living room now has direct access to the garden, and both spaces are bathed in sunlight throughout the day.

 

In the Middle of the Apartment

The spiral staircase in the first room cannot be moved, so let's turn this disadvantage into an advantage by emphasizing its presence! The wall between the two rooms disappears, but a curved wall is built around the staircase to separate it from the space. To make this block less overwhelming, two openings are added to create exciting openings. With stronger colors and lighting, this will become a prominent and eye-catching feature of the apartment. With stronger colour and lighting, it will be an accentuating and eye-catching feature of the home. A TV is placed on a section of wall between the living and dining room, and a bioethanol fireplace is placed underneath, which can be enjoyed from both sides. A special feature of the living room is the mirrored wall behind the sofa, which widens the space and adds an interesting play of light with interesting reflections.

 

New Ratios

 

Once the second toilet is moved close to the bathroom, the dimensions of the rooms in this area need to be changed. The corridor is disproportionately large, so some space is taken from it for the benefit of both the study- and the bathroom. Originally, narrow built-in cabinets were under the bridging beam, which are now gone, so storage needs to be reimagined. The size of the dining room allows us to detach a small section of it, so the family now has a walk-in closet.

(Read the original article in Nők Lapja 35.)

 

 

Andrea Sallak