Nuzha Apartment
“A house within a house”, describes almost entirely the idea behind this rehabilitation project, which was to create an infra-structurally independent apartment, occupying some long unused areas of the main house, located in its basement.
The interior connections with the rest of the house were removed, developing an isolated pocket inside the main house outer shell, that would became a three bedroom apartment that shares only the exterior existing circulations and street entrances. This intervention extended exclusively to the interior space, repurposing even the deepest corners, previously used for storage, into habitable quality areas.
Natural light became of a major concern, as well as ventilation, due to the fact that only the entrance facade is completely exposed to the sun’s rays, unhindered and unobscured. Therefore, we placed the most important spaces hierarchically, so that they assume a natural capacity to oxygenate the entire apartment in the most possible salubrious way.
Along with the social area, a gallery was created, an elevated floor space that circumscribes the living and dining room, to exhibit art related objects of interest, placed underneath the ground floor outdoor circulation, which is equipped with several skylights. This gallery is defined by a sequence of round arches that generates an evident distinction from the other social spaces, where the light design fixtures play an important role as well, throughout the development of a unique atmosphere. The wide entrance foyer connects with the living room through a deep vaulted ceiling arch, a sort of tunnel that produces an important node in this transition of spaces, slowly revealing the apartment true nature.
