‘Today, Australian families are looking beyond purely functional living, growing increasingly interested in conjuring beautiful and varied environments to enjoy at home,’ LINTEL director Emiliano Miranda says.
‘Small-scale living must respond to this aspiration, as spaces used to house disparate moments of relaxation, contemplation, and nourishment within a limited footprint.’
He tackled this exact dilemma in his recent project, dubbed Studio Elroy. The owners of a Sydney sandstone home engaged the architect to turn their unusable basement into a self-contained space that could promote, rest, relaxation, work, and play.
The obvious challenge finding room for a bed, kitchenette, bathroom, and office in what was originally a 28-square-metre basement — tangled up in ‘ventilation ducting and construction scraps’.
Emiliano says it was a bit of an organisational ‘puzzle’, but they worked almost exclusively within the parameters of the original sandstone build. Inverting the placement of the window and doorway bought new light into the structure, while also making way for a functional joinery unit, equipped with a sink, and a study nook, which looks out to leafy views.
This kind of clever intervention was enhanced by the craftsmanship of builder Joshua Maule Construction and joiners Kinship Customs, who helped create a fold-down bed on the opposite side of the space.
‘The queen-size platform stands with elegance in the space when lowered and can be swiftly tucked away, leaving few hints of its whereabouts between ribbed timber batons,’ Emiliano adds.
They selected the ‘cochineal-red’ colour palette in hopes of enveloping the room’s multi-purpose functions in a cohesive and soothing tone. Painted and tiled surfaces feature shades of salmon through to rich garnets, with sophisticated brass detailing and natural stone bringing a sense of ‘peace’ to the interiors.
Emiliano describes the resulting Studio Elroy as a ‘Swiss-army-knife’ style solution that manages to go beyond the diverse functional needs of the initial brief, to make ‘something out of nothing’.
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