There is strong evidence backed by statistic studies that contemporary city residents spend over 80% indoors, be it at home, at work or in places of entertainment. It is where architecture and interior design solutions get to have a key role for creating the best ambiance and environment that would make people feel comfy and happy while staying indoors. “Breaking” conventional architectural proportions and arrangements and “playing” with light, colors and materials are among the most popular techniques used by architects and designers in their desire to influence people’s experience in enclosed spaces.
This minimal white and yellow apartment, located in Vilamoura, Portugal, is an excellent example of the contemporary trend of introducing seemingly incomprehensible architectural “chaos” to actually achieve more sense, style and, yes, even better order in interior spaces. With an overall small size of 30sqm / 323sqft, the apartment has a studio-type wall-less open-plan layout where space has been visually enlarged by a panoramic window and a color palette in white.
Indeed, everything in this interior is white… except for three individual elements in contrasting yellow. At first sight, these elements might not make much sense and raise the question of their purpose. The architects from Corpo Atelier however explain their solution by pointing out that these objects actually play an important role in improving the interior space:
- their arrangement contributes to defining different areas in the open-plan living space – an entrance hall, a central living room and a bedroom;
- as furniture items, they provide convenient storage and display solutions;
- their shape and location achieve an interesting unconventional rendering of key architectural elements (an architrave, a fallen column and a plinth) arranged as an intriguing “puzzle” which, when mentally assembled, evoke the experience of a stylish piece of sculptural art;
- and finally, their bright yellow color creates beautiful accents into the all-white interior with cheerful effect.
Introducing these three elements in the interior of this minimal white and yellow apartment has proved that chaos can actually be stylish!
Photography: Alexander Bogorodskiy