Passionate Living

By Pari Syal

Photography: Toshiyuki Yano; courtesy Airhouse Design Office 

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When your ‘passion’ becomes a seamless part of your lifestyle, your interiors become bohemian and you become as much an amused spectator as a zealous participant.
It takes guts to alter one’s space and actually make less room than what earlier was; while it takes spunk to exhibit one’s vanity! Ar. Keiichi Kiriyama of Airhouse Design Office has accomplished both for a lady client, who has the penchant for ‘storing clothes’ and ‘displaying’ her new buys.

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Floor plan of the refurbished apartment

Segmentally divided bedrooms, living and utility areas of the 40-year old apartment have been refurbished along an absolutely off-beat, abstract spatial layout, where the clothes closet dominates and forms the fulcrum of the redesign.

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The 114 sq. m. home built in reinforced concrete and mortar has been refurbished to brandish a raw geniality as it forms a concrete shell backdrop against which are positioned functional kitchen dining, living and sleeping; and the more intriguing mini fashion street that shows off the array of fashionable clothing.

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The large walk-in closet called a ‘dress room’ occupies centre-stage of the new plan and incorporates the washroom, shower etc within its fold. The room functions as a passage as well as a display storage and a hide-away storage, and the space continuously changes depending on the situation or season.

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Fashion blends into life, and the space becomes the mood barometer of the client depending on seasonal changes in the wardrobe.

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“The project has been nothing short of a serious study into construction of spaces through re-examination of the conventional ideas of clothing storage,” informs the architect. The home is located in Nagoya city, Japan.