A Curious Curation – Palmer Street by Studio Shand

Traversing typologies, Palmer Street combines the familiarity of home with the confidence of a gallery and the allowance for opportunity and wonder. Studio Shand draws on contrasting and curious details to curate a series of interlocking spaces that defy the traditional and entice enquiry.

Set in Sydney’s Darlinghurst, Palmer Street sees a unique collective of treasured and curated artworks, furniture, lighting and sculptures, coming together to don the interior of an existing space. As both a residence and studio, there is a gallery-type quality to how all the elements converge and how, as a collective, they speak to the mind of their custodians. Equal parts nostalgic and contrast, the series of spaces incite an inquisitiveness through the detailing of each comprising piece and their connection to one another. Studio Shand showcases an interplay between the existing architectural shell of the building and how the elements occupy the space.

Equal parts nostalgic and contrast, the series of spaces incite an inquisitiveness through the detailing of each comprising piece and their connection to one another.

Propped above a textile showroom on the floor below, Palmer Street sits comfortably amongst a creative enclave of similar neighbours. Internally, the creation of spatial volumes sees an arrangement of geometric pieces intercepting – each with their own personalities and oddities, telling their own embodied stories of their creation. The hovering of one light shape above the solidity of another creates a sense of balance and, as natural light moves into and across the spaces throughout the day, shadows of equally interesting proportion then animate the interior. The intention was to create a momentum of sparsity and saturation throughout, where a tension exists alongside a looser element.

As a showcase of its owners, Eliza and Benjamin, Palmer Street becomes a combined extension of who they are and their passions, as a projection of their ideas and, as they say, “as a time-capsule love letter to design”.

Internally, the creation of spatial volumes sees an arrangement of geometric pieces intercepting, each with their own personalities and oddities, and each telling their own embodied stories of their creation.