This apartment is designed for a family of 4 people: husband, wife and 2 children. The husband - a young business man - come to us with a specific requirement. He wanted the apartment to be simple, contemporary and yet to have his own theme. We asked what kind of things he liked and he said he loved coffee. He drinks coffee every morning just to have the energy needed for a whole day. So we had a theme right there: The Kafe Apartment.

At first, we produced 3D model with monotone color to get a feel of the space. And it came naturally to us that we should be playing around with colors and textures. We tried exploring different shades of brown and what kind of materials we could use to execute our idea. Finally, we chose engineered wood products for their availability and also they could exhibit the coffee – atmosphere that we desired. Some of the interior walls were also painted brown to resonate the initial concept.

Regarding functionality, the kitchen island was designed to serve as both the dining table and the prep table. Also, it could be seen as a space-divider  between living and kitchen area.

In Vietnam, every family has a space for ancestor veneration.  It clashes with the existence of Western – style aparments which become prominent in Vietnam the last decade. Because when design and sell apartments, investors make no attempt to consider this particular worshiping space. In our case, we used a simple mounted altar above the TV cabinet. The idea was to have a decent worshiping space without disarranging the whole layout.

The L-shape bookshelf was designed to cater the family’s need. The owner wanted an open shelf. However, he also stressed that his children are very playful and untidy so he also needed some kind of covers when needed. Regarding his requirement, we designed a semi-open bookshelf with sliding louvre doors. Apart from aesthetic reason, the louvre doors come in quite handy because the father can put all the toys in some particular compartments and locked the sliding louvre doors when needed.