MM33 Apartment rethinks a typical domestic milieu, a commercialized urban housing unit where room sizes are predominantly determined more by the logic of sales and marketing data rather than the dynamics of life. To create more space for flexible usages and for a sense of spaciousness, the rigid sense of room making is challenged, and the assumed standard dimensions are discarded for more meticulously compact scales.
© Napat Pattrayanond
The new design turns a one-bedroom apartment into an open-plan space, in which “rooms” are pushed against the boundaries to make space for an airy, unobstructed “court.” These rooms—the sleeping, lounging, dressing, and bathroom areas—are reduced to their optimum sizes; although small, they fit just right, for these dimensions are carefully specified accordingly to the user’s scale and requirements. The court space is functionally for cooking and dining. But it also acts as a borrowed visual space for the rooms besides. So, the space perceived is bigger.
© Napat Pattrayanond
The extension of space is possible due to the use of operable walls that gently divide the court from the others while allowing for a sense of connection, instead of fixed and opaque partitioning. The curtains permit flexibility of use and make a spacious feeling possible while not rejecting privacy where needed. In the absence of walls as room makers/dividers, the functional fixtures play a crucial role in space planning and the aesthetics of the whole. They become architectural elements. These pieces of furniture are conceptualized as individual prefab units, equipped with essential functions for small-scale urban living, potentially applicable to various other sites, while adjustable to specific conditions.
© Napat Pattrayanond
The essence of materiality is fully exposed. The floor is light beige linoleum. The fixture units are constructed of structural clear-coated plywood, exposing their layered edges. The distinct coloring aims to break the box-like volume into planes, and allow more flexibility and freedom by making object selection not too restricted, as opposed to having a monotonous ambience.
Project Info
Architects: buno
Country: Thailand, Khet Khlong Toei
Area: 54 m²
Year: 2023
Photographs: Napat Pattrayanond
