A home away from home, Taipei, Taiwan

Photography by Kuomin Lee

The mandate for this Taipei apartment renovation, the designer states, was to “eliminate the sense of oppression on the inside” and create a sense of openness within a narrow footprint. Borrowings from the interior designer’s bag of tricks break up the scale of the space and create the illusion of taller ceiling height. In the ensuite, grids recur as a unifying leitmotif:  reveals are incised on the walls of the bedroom, the bed canopy and the bathroom exterior. In the living-dining-kitchen area, dark dropped bulkheads alternate with bands of taller white ceiling. These planes are punctuated by pendant lighting, recessed pin lighting and track lighting, creating a rhythm of long horizontals that enliven the space. Co-ordinating and complementary surfacing materials in shimmering and matte finishes add richness and depth to walls and floors. The highlight material, nero marquina marble (or some such), with its characteristic bold contrast of white veins on a black field, imparts a feeling of luxury. A low-slung flue-less island fireplace (actually, a Safretti water-mist fire simulator) adds flickering tongues of faux flame to lighten one’s spirits.