Unique building in the Old Town
The apartment building in the center of Bratislava, which was designed in the 1930s by the prominent architectural duo - Friedrich Weinwurm and Ignaz Vécsei, has one interesting construction feature. That is, it was originally meant to be a building with mixed functionality – housing a shop, office space and apartments within.
The architects were expecting the residential function to step back in favor of the office space or store in time, therefore constructing it using a reinforced concrete skeleton with a span of up to 14 meters, which presented a considerable construction challenge for its time. However, they achieved a remarkable variability of the building's interior spaces, which we took advantage of during the renovation.
116 m2
obytnej plochy3
months to design5
months to deliver116 m2
obytnej plochy3
months to design5
months to deliverLiving room and kitchen
Contemporary flats often struggle with insufficient space for a kitchen. In our case, however, the kitchen is located in the space that was originally intended as a living room connected to the kitchen of one of the two-bedroom apartments. So we had the opportunity to create a truly grand space that became the heart of the whole apartment.
The dining room is unusually extended from the kitchen into the space in front of a large window overlooking the street. It is, however, a better fit for formal gatherings of multiple people with a more chamber vibe, since day-to-day dining needs are easily accommodated by the sizable kitchen island. This kitchen island also contains a built-in wine cabinet and a sophisticated hob with an integrated extractor hood.
The living room is dominated by a beautiful sofa with a white bouclé cover, behind which we have placed a custom-made, light-feeling, furniture – an open bookcase. This forms the function of a partition element, visually separating the traffic zones between the rooms and the bathroom.
Materials
The wooden floor with a herringbone pattern stands out inside the apartment. Other furniture is in light, cream and white tones with occasional accents of black. Selected pieces of furniture are finished in a dark, walnut decor, in particular one side of the tall kitchen unit assembly with built-in appliances and a niche on the other side of the kitchen with a double sink positioned. The tiled floor and cast stone worktops in a light beige tone are subtly matched to these.
The same material used on the tiled floor is also used on the walls which don’t have furniture of both bathrooms. Last and perhaps one of the most important elements within the apartment are the mirrored panels and mirrored doors. They are mainly used in the bedroom and bathrooms, where they visually expand the space and reflect light from windows and light fixtures. In addition to that, these oftentimes hide servicing access to the technical devices of both of the original apartments.
Natural oak
Floor
Cream coloured MDF
Furniture
Dark walnut
Furniture
Layout
The planned expansion of the store or the office space never took place and the apartments on the upper floors have remained to this day. The building has recently undergone extensive reconstruction, which has managed to even further extend the apartments’ scale on the floors.
The client approached us in order to collaborate on the reconstruction and furnishing of two of such neighboring two-bedroom apartments. Together, we have quickly come to the idea of merging the two flats into a single, large, three-bedroom apartment with a generous footprint. The construction of the building allowed us to achieve such a result without any difficult interventions, statics-wise. The only thing we needed to do was to remove the non-load-bearing wall between the apartments.
The other spaces
One room has a separate wardrobe located directly in its anteroom, the other – the master bedroom – has it designed in the form of a large built-in wardrobe. From the former vestibule of one of the apartments, we have also created a separate pantry with a laundry room, which is accessed from the kitchen area. As each of the two apartments had one bathroom, the newly-created three-bedroom apartment has two bathrooms – one to meet the needs of the guests and the other – larger – one to meet the needs of our client. This large bathroom also has a bathtub, as well as a large shower.
Fixtures and accessories
Ambient lighting is often integrated directly into the custom-made furniture and other structures, but there are also some nice pieces of solitary lighting from brands like Pholc and Estiluz.
The retro dining chairs with rattan weave and also the solid oak table form a pleasing composition with one of these lamps, which is in part a neat little call-back to the period-accurate design of the 1930s. The coffee table is our original design, specially made to match the other built-in furniture.
Design and execution
The interior of this house was a project, where the ideas and wishes of the client aligned exactly with our favorite principles of design. The minimalist elements used, the emphasis on materials, functionality and practical details turned this space into an interior that is as functional as it is timeless.
Photo: Marián Svítek/BOLD Digital
Would you like to learn more about interior design as it happens or what services we provide?
Don't miss new updates
Do you like our works? Subscribe to our newsletter and receive updates straight to your inbox.
