Project Overview

KNOF design (based in London and founded by New York designer Susan Knof) obtained its first major commission: the remodelling of a spectacular 360° penthouse in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, uniting two separate apartments into a single 3,600 sq ft space. The new, one-storey penthouse features floor-to-ceiling glazing all the way round and offers its owners incredible panoramic views over the city and adjacent mountains with all the benefits of continuous natural light, from sunrise through to sunset.

Project Commissioner

Private Client

Project Creator

KNOF design

Team

The project was a collaborative team process directed by Creative Director and owner, Susan Knof or KNOF design and was implemented by local architectural and lighting design teams, Vanica and CDD.

Project Brief

The brief from the client was to merge two existing properties (an east and west apartment) to create a single penthouse with an open living environment that allowed for an unobstructed kitchen, dining, living and entertaining space, where full advantage could be taken of the views, whilst also providing private areas for the master bedroom and children’s areas.

‘Our clients – an international family of four – purchased the flats in a prominent high rise in the city’, commented Susan Knof, Creative Director and Founder of KNOF design, ‘and briefed us to combine the apartments to create a single, luxurious, bright and open environment, which would make the best use of the incoming light at different times of the day, but which would also allow them to control the degree of privacy they wanted at particular times or for particular spaces.’

The light-privacy balance in the penthouse was achieved by fitting soft voiles all the way around the 360° glazing, as well as black-out blinds, so that the owners have the choice of completely open living; light-filled but private living using the voiles or else blocking the light out completely.

Project Innovation/Need

Above all, this penthouse scheme fulfils the client’s brief, providing a home with clever planning and an astute awareness of detail. But, more than that, the quality of the finishes, the balanced palette, the customised furnishings and an overriding commitment to considered design fuse together and culminate in a sophisticated and harmonious contemporary luxury penthouse with a modern European approach.

Design Challenge

From an interior architectural standpoint, the main challenge of the project was the original planning of the overall building – especially the existing plumbing stacks, which restricted the exploration of radical planning layouts and the new design very much had to work around that. Structurally, there were also given core walls that had to remain in place. In addition, the full height windows also offered limited space for new ceiling and lighting logistics, and, most restrictive of all, the M&E services were planned along the perimeter full height glazing walls, seemingly blocking the views and the implementation of sheer or black-out curtaining. This was overcome by re-coordinating the mechanical layouts and plans, so that the air handling units were brought inside the internal core walls and concealed in custom joinery units.

Timing, communication, and location offered further challenges, however, in the end resulted in full advantage.

Sustainability

The primary sustainable approach was to go local. Rather than looking to known suppliers in the London market, creative director, Susan Knof made several visits to Sofia sourcing local suppliers for furniture, fittings and most important stones. In order to create the final look a lot of research and detail was required to obtain the standards and quality the clients expected without a high demand on external sourcing.

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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