Caretaker’s Residence

Locat­ed with­in a steel worker’s fac­to­ry, the Caretaker’s Res­i­dence nav­i­gates the ben­e­fits and chal­lenges of com­bin­ing work­ing and liv­ing envi­ron­ments. Pro­vid­ing the own­ers with a new lev­el of flex­i­bil­i­ty and effi­cien­cy, this apart­ment pro­vides a retreat from its sur­rounds while embrac­ing the inher­ent indus­tri­al qualities.

Pro­gram­mat­i­cal­ly, the work­ing and liv­ing spaces are posi­tioned on sep­a­rate lev­els. Set above the fac­to­ry on the ground lev­el, the built form of this apart­ment was large­ly pre­de­ter­mined, being the trans­for­ma­tion of the orig­i­nal com­mer­cial office. A care­ful bal­ance of pri­va­cy and con­nec­tion visu­al­ly and acousti­cal­ly allows the two some­what oppos­ing func­tions to coex­ist and enhance each oth­er through interaction. 

With­in the apart­ment there is a pub­lic to pri­vate gra­da­tion, allow­ing for a vari­ety of simul­ta­ne­ous uses with­in the small space. The exist­ing stair­case leads to a cen­tral bench which can be opened into a bar for enter­tain­ing or used for every­day domes­tic func­tions. The pri­vate mas­ter suite is tucked behind a hid­den join­ery pan­el allow­ing for dis­creet­ness when required.

The exist­ing space is trans­formed through a care­ful­ly cho­sen palette and craft­ed details to give a soft and refined aes­thet­ic. The lux­u­ry apart­ment is char­ac­terised by a warm nat­ur­al palette of raw plas­ter, cedar and wool adding tex­ture and soft­ness to its indus­tri­al shell. Draw­ing on one of the owner’s Japan­ese her­itage and the cou­ples love of min­i­mal­ism the apart­ment is fine­ly detailed.

By util­is­ing the own­ers’ steel work­ing skills and the fac­to­ry below, many struc­tur­al and dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments includ­ing screens and join­ery inte­grate fine met­al crafts­man­ship while being espe­cial­ly cost effec­tive. Adding sophis­ti­cat­ed, raw steel details also cre­ates a unique ref­er­ence to the man­u­fac­tur­ing context.

Cap­i­tal­is­ing on co-exist­ing indus­tri­al and res­i­den­tial func­tions, the Caretaker’s Res­i­dence uses its unique posi­tion­ing to cre­ate visu­al inter­est and encom­pass social con­nec­tions in a care­ful­ly inte­grat­ed live/​work environment.