Project Overview

The furniture concept in this glamorous, unexpectedly modern Melbourne penthouse responds to the material palette of the interior fitout and our clients’ desire for a city pad that’s made for entertaining and escape.

The apartment architecture and interior was designed by Melbourne architecture practice, Fitt de Felice, and construction was underway when we were engaged to furnish the spaces. The large apartment is broadly divided into two discrete zones – public and private – and each space showcases a distinct composition of materials (timber, travertine, leather, metal and polished plaster).

Our furnishing palette intentionally engages moody monochrome fabrics as a subtle counterpoint to this rich and varied backdrop. The furniture concept draws inspiration from lesser-known designer furniture pieces with distinctive sculptural forms that hold their own against the architecture and the ever-present city skyline beyond. The galactic result – appropriate more than 80 floors in the sky – is reductive and confident.

Project Commissioner

Private Client

Project Creator

Molecule

Team

Furniture Selection and Art Direction: Molecule
Anja de Spa
Jarrod Haberfield
Ingrid Murray

Architecture and Interior Design: Fitt de Felice

Project Brief

This apartment was conceived as a genuinely urban pad that would provide a luxurious backdrop to the high-speed lives of its high-rolling owners. The apartment’s strong material palette and slick aesthetic could not be ignored; we required of ourselves a devout observance of the fitout, which our furniture and furnishings would complete.

Its sky-high locale needed also to be observed (the apartment sits more than 80 floors above the ground), an influence that heralded our adoption of a galactic, almost other-worldly interior atmosphere.

Our clients were clear about the apartment’s role in their social and business lives – it needed to facilitate entertaining at a major scale and operate in an almost civic manner. For this reason the project hovers between home and hotel, high-end office and function centre.

The functional brief called for formal living and dining spaces, a ‘display’ kitchen with out-of-sight caterers’ kitchen adjacent, a family living zone, executive study suitable as workplace and meeting venue, and five bedroom suites.

Project Innovation/Need

This apartment interior offers a new version of minimalism: sculptural shapes distributed without fuss or undue decoration, combined to create a luxurious and embracing atmosphere. Minimalism often tends to the sterile and inhuman; this project actively works to dispel these traits while also avoiding clutter, knick-knacks or overt symbols of domesticity.

Importantly, innovation occurs in the level of customisation undertaken to perfectly mesh the furniture and furnishings with their built backdrop. Wool tufts for custom rugs were matched to adjacent joinery elements, a dining table was commissioned to seamlessly occupy its vast dining setting, sofas were designed and commissioned for the angle at which their arms and backs met to match those of the building itself.

The role of customisation is crucial in how the fitout and furnishings mesh to create an immersive whole: highly-tailored solutions often feature behind apparently effortless results.

Design Challenge

The primary challenge of this project was operating within another designer’s fitout. As architects and interior designers, we are well practiced at fitting out and finishing our own spaces, but seldom are we working within environments created by others. Our solution was to engage earnestly with the fitout in which we were working and observe a highly contextual approach.

Adding to the complexity of our engagement was the project’s being in construction when we became involved. Rather than responding to the nuances of a finished space, we were required to envisage the project at completion – using only drawings and material palettes – and the framing of the spaces into which our work would be installed. Endless sourcing of samples and extensive prototyping worked to optimise the fineness of the end result.

Providing a minimalist space without sterility was the final challenge. Tuning the ‘temperature’ of each space, and the pitch of every piece by observing tones of colour, textures and specularity allowed the balancing of a bravely galactic environment that remained enjoyable to the senses and highly supportive of human occupation.

Sustainability

Our interest in longevity extends to the trend durability of the chosen aesthetic: the settings in this apartment are not fast fashion pop-ups with in-built obsolescence and short-lived likability. They have been created with an eye for their timeless qualities and with a high level of care for their ability to endure over time.

For us, notions of sustainability extend to the health of the local economy and the productive value of relationships between local creative professionals: many furniture pieces were designed and selected to be produced locally, of natural materials, with a long-term focus. With the reduction of carbon miles as a welcome side-effect, the sourcing of new items and materials as much for the quality of their manufacture as their beauty underscores our interest in sustainable consumption and developing healthy creative communities.

Interior Design - Residential

This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes and aesthetic presentation. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.  

 

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