Chinese practice Topos Design Clans has recently converted an 80 sqm apartment located in a high-rise building on Fengyang Road, in the old downtown of Shanghai, into a unique home art studio.
Seven is a painter, Jackie is his wife. Before getting married, they both had a shepherd dog. The family of four lived in a rented apartment. The painting space occupied every corner of the apartment, with full of chaos and dangers. In short, there was neither life nor art in their previous home.
Loving and caring for each other, they had different and thoughtful design requirements for the renovation: Seven hopes to provide a warm and loving living space for Jackie; Jackie wants to provide a free and open studio space for Seven. “We believe that life and art are actually not conflicts, instead, art can make life elegant and delicate, with full of rituality,” they explain.
Thinking out of the box, Topos Design conceived the new living room as an unusual space, which is a container of life and art. In the terms of colors, the living room is temperately organized with simple black and white. It is like a three-dimensional canvas, with the life as the color on it. The grey ceramic tiles are used for the floor coverings, which are easy to be cleaned, and the original texture feels raw but real.
The luminous ceiling, covered with three pieces of full-length PVC membrane, provides three types of lighting modes, respectively, for painting, exhibition, and living. In the corner space beside the entrance, there is a group of storage cabinets.
After investigating the painter’s working behaviors, the design team categorized Seven’s drawing tools in different cabinets according to their sizes and uses. Among the cabinets, there hides a movable partition with two-meter width, which can be a display wall for a gallery.
The balcony becomes a mini full functional life center. With plenty of sunlight, Jackie lying on the couch, Seven painting on the canvas, it is just like a fascinating colorful painting. There are several types of storage cabinets on both sides of the new studio: the pegboard for model kits, the bookcase below the window, and the corner cabinets for large paintings. And furthermore, we customized a multi-functional large table, which is not only for handcrafting but also for dinner parties.
On the right side of the entryway, there is a small golden niche, which is for the keys and the dog chains. On the other side, there is a shoe cabinet, which can be pulled out.
The main façade of the doghouse is an abstract pixelized drawing wall created from the portrait of them. The golden doghouse has different sizes of embedded space, not just for the two puppies‘ living, but also for placing different sizes of art installations. The corridor continues using the golden plates, which becomes an extension of the gallery. There are three hidden doors in this folding corridor, covering three colorful private rooms.
Three private rooms are the essential part of the fundamental life, better with minimal forms to present. First of all, the theme color of the restroom is jungle green, using green handmade tiles on the wall. The pink toilet becomes a bright spot in this poky space. Secondary, the theme color of the kitchen is lake blue in various degrees. The yellow cushions and the yellow lamp make a perfect dating place. The last but not least, the bedroom is decorated with the pink painting on the wall, with two windows facing east and south. Featuring Seven’s painting of pink on the wall, the bedroom is full of romance and love.