Tiny Glasgow condo remodeled into playful pied-à-terre

Architect Lee Ivett, designer Simon Harlow and developer Duncan Blackmore have turned a 25-square-metre condo in Glasgow right into a brightly colored house that does not comprise any freestanding furnishings.

Blackmore labored intently with Ivett and Harlow to plan the inside of the ground-floor tenement flat, which he makes use of as a base whereas visiting his different initiatives within the metropolis’s Govanhill space.

The micro-apartment was designed in Glasgow

When Blackmore bought the property it comprised a cramped hallway, a compact bathe room, a kitchen and a sleeping space, which have been separated by partition partitions.

The primary thought for the redesigned house was to allow circulation all through and to utilise its verticality along with the square-shaped ground space.

Tiny kitchen with geometric features in Glasgow micro apartment — It features a tiny kitchen house

“I needed to have the ability to stroll round within the flat, regardless that it is tiny,” stated Blackmore. “I additionally needed the vast majority of the house to be versatile by way of use, somewhat than defining areas for sure actions.”

Work started with the elimination of inner partitions and the elevating of current structural openings nearer to the three.4-metre ceilings. A collection of volumes designed in three dimensions have been then inserted to fulfil numerous useful wants.

Multi-purpose bench within micro apartment in Glasgow — An open house comprises a hard and fast, multi-purpose bench

The condo’s entrance space leads into an open house containing a hard and fast bench for sitting, lounging or sleeping. A shelf that features as a desk is inserted subsequent to considered one of two massive, south-facing home windows that flood the inside with pure mild.

Key features, together with washing, sleeping, cooking and the doorway, are pushed to the sides of the plan, releasing up the remainder of the house so it may be utilized in a wide range of other ways.

Arched openings and yellow accents within Glasgow apartment — The primary house was left deliberately uncluttered

“I used to be eager to keep away from having a typical dwelling house with a settee, a espresso desk and a tv,” Blackmore informed Dezeen.

“The primary house is completely unprogrammed and uncluttered and has virtually nothing in it. You need to use it for a gathering or a celebration or simply as someplace to sit down and assume. I like how versatile and unfussy it’s.”

Terrazzo cladding within compact shower room in micro apartment — A compact bathe room was created

A mezzanine sleeping platform is slotted in above a compact bathe room, making the most of the vertical house and stopping the room from feeling disproportionately excessive.

The mattress is reached by way of a set of wood steps, with a small round gap seen from the dwelling space offering someplace to put a hand whereas manoeuvring into place.

Small wooden steps within compact apartment leading to mezzanine — The mezzanine is reached by way of small wood steps

The brand new interventions are constructed across the retained construction and have kinds that playfully disguise which partitions, columns or beams retain their authentic performance.

“Lee got here up with the shapes primarily based on the connection between current openings and the geometry we imposed on the house,” Blackmore identified.

Small circular hole showing view to yellow living area — A small round gap supplies a view to the dwelling space

“The place we would have liked to bridge variations in top or gaps between sure parts, the surfaces meet one another with a curve or a step,” he added, “so the ornament is derived from the decision of those structural glitches.”

The undertaking takes its title, Ferguson, from the discovered nameplate of a earlier occupier and the design borrows from the architectural heritage of its environment.

Oversized red cast-concrete sink in kitchen of micro apartment — The kitchen options an outsized purple cast-concrete sink

The remnants of a close-by constructing that burned down knowledgeable the arched form above the steps as much as the sleeping space, in addition to a gap that permits daylight to filter by means of to the bathe room.

Colored cushions on the bench reference the doorway of a close-by constructing, whereas the bright-yellow datum that extends across the house is a reversal of the painted partitions within the tenement’s shared stairwell.

Arched yellow shape above the stairs in micro apartment — The remnants of a close-by constructing that burned down knowledgeable the arched form above the steps

The kitchen comprises the minimal facilities wanted to acquire a constructing warrant. Its outsized purple cast-concrete sink is accessible for hand washing on arrival from the doorway corridor – a legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout which the undertaking was constructed.

Behind the condo’s solely inner door, the bathe room is totally lined in two colourways of an ornamental strong floor materials made by Simon Harlow’s firm Mirrl. A custom-made sink extends using vivid yellow seen elsewhere within the inside.

Your entire undertaking was fabricated by Harlow and artist’s technician Simon Richardson, leading to a degree of workmanship and intuitive artistic detailing that lends it a robust sense of persona.

Blackmore is eager to stress that the condo shouldn’t be seen for example of tiny dwelling, as he solely ever spends temporary spells of time there.

Custom-made yellow sink surrounding blue vanity unit — A custom-made sink extends using vivid yellow seen elsewhere

“I am completely not suggesting that individuals ought to dwell like this,” he stated. “The house is basically private and tailor-made to my wants, that are a pleasant mattress, a scorching bathe with good water stress and respectable WiFi.”

“If you happen to have been dwelling there completely you’d design it very in another way, however as a spot for me to remain and work or chill out it is good.”

Blackmore is the co-founder of developer Arrant Land, which creates initiatives led by an curiosity in structure, constructed heritage and the social dynamics of the UK’s cities and cities.

Earlier initiatives backed by Arrant Land embrace a red-brick home with playful tiled detailing in south London and an condo constructing within the seaside city of Whitstable that includes black brick partitions that evoke the close by wood fishing huts.

The images is by Pierce Scourfield.