Embedded Warmth – Duncan Residence by CoLab Design Studio

Reshaping the interior of an existing apartment, CoLAB Design Studio opens the floorplan to ensure an outward engagement from all areas within the home. The resulting Duncan Residence sees layered crafted timber elements and newly formed gestures throughout add an embedded warmth and overlay an integral handmade sensibility, binding each of the spaces.

As a balancing of light and lightness, Duncan Residence avoids a tonal palette and instead integrates key textural nuances through materiality to ensure a connection to the natural elements beyond the home. Sitting within the lively Southbank precinct in Melbourne, within close adjacency to the famed Hamer Hall, the proximity and closeness to the surrounding civic prominence of the area demands an equally impressive interior resolve. With views out that firmly ground the residence in place, the interior needed to become a more elevated version of its previous self – a mid-1990s serviced apartment offering. In response, CoLAB Design Studio brings an attention to detailing and refined junctions to carefully craft the new spaces.

By eliminating walls that separated the home into a series of zones, the overall floor area feels enlarged, while also connecting to the surrounding views and lightening the spaces.

Opening the existing planning was integral to the newly-found flow of the interior, connecting to both the views and an internal ease of movement between areas. The result sees clear visual access from the initial entry sequence, out into the combined living, dining and kitchen areas and then into the more retreat-like bedroom spaces. By eliminating the walls that separated the home into a series of zones, the overall floor area feels enlarged, while also connecting to the surrounding views and lightening the spaces naturally as a result.

As a key feature of the new space, and as a reflection of the lifestyle changes have occurred since the apartment was originally built, the kitchen becomes the heart of the home. Focusing detailing and attention to how the space would be best used and how it would best serve the needs of its owners, the joinery plays a vital role in setting the scene for the home. Integrated study options allowing for working from home are cleverly concealed yet maximise the joinery as a living and supporting element within the home. Using a lightened timber veneer, the kitchen area feels like an extension of the glowing outer façade, while the natural texture of the surfaces adds an organic feel to the space. Combining with marble, a sense of elevated luxury is felt throughout, allowing the naturally occurring marble veining to add a sense of movement to the wet areas and integrating a classical reference.

Using a lightened timber veneer, the kitchen area feels like an extension of the glowing outer façade, while allowing the natural texture of the surfaces to add an organic feel to the space.

Duncan Residence is the re-alignment of its existing self into one of purpose and permanence. The materiality and finishes ensure a continued legacy in place, seeing CoLAB Design Studio create a calming home to retreat away from the surrounding hustle and bustle yet visually connected to the surrounding milieu.