Queen Street Apartment

by Alana Cooke. Architecture. Interior Design.

This apartment highlights the power of minimalist contemporary interior architecture to highlight and accentuate stunning natural views.

The Queen Street Apartment by Alana Cooke and her team celebrates the best of what was discovered by completely stripping back its previous identity. Dated interiors were concealing enviable bones, which warranted as much attention as the apartment’s incredible views.

The clients were living overseas during the design and build, entrusting the studio to forge ahead with significant autonomy. The process began by removing extensive Gyprock, and what they found set the tone for the entire project. When knocking out a patch of plasterboard, Alana Cooke and her team discovered concrete columns, an expanse of precast concrete and industrial paint-marks dating to the building’s construction.

Rawness is conveyed throughout Queen Street Apartment; an acknowledgement of the concrete canvas the studio were working with. The theme compelled their decision to use only materials that didn’t require ‘finishing’, but only the subtlest treatment necessary to encourage their natural expression. The high-gloss finish on existing parquetry floors was sanded back before a light oiling.

Beige carpets were removed to reveal concrete floors beneath. Carefully detailed walls of joinery, and a screen dividing the entry from the kitchen, were constructed in Formply. In the kitchen, richly textured marble wraps the poured concrete island bench, and sits quietly vibrant, tucked into the smooth ply joinery.

The lighting was designed by Alana Cooke specifically for this project. Blackform steel plate was cut into a circular form and illuminated from behind. The emanating glow highlights the wall’s concrete render in a full circle back to the apartment’s concrete slab form.

Thanks to Alana Cooke and her team the occupants of the Queen Street Apartment can now enjoy the stunning views of the Melbourne skyline within sophisticated interior surroundings.

To view more Alana Cooke inspired architecture & interior design archives head to her TLP Designer Profile Page.

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