The Folded Apartment

The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier

The Folded Apartment

More Design Office

PHOTOGRAPHS
Raphael Olivier

AREA
50 M²

YEAR
2014

LOCATION
Shanghai, China

CATEGORY
Apartment Interiors

The Folded Apartment: How to make 50 sqm feel bigger than it is?

The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier
The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier

Finding an affordable apartment in the centre of any city is very difficult. Usually compromises need to be made and in this case we bought an apartment with poor daylight, but a great location and a plan we could reconfigure.

We wanted two key things from the apartment – a sense of space, of openness, and on the other hand, privacy. In a small apartment these two requirements are usually at odds.

The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier
The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier

We achieved them by organizing the functions from public to private and then folding them around a central spine wall.

The spaces are kept deliberately open but privacy is achieved by controlling the view vistas, and through a series of translucent glass doors which allow daylight to penetrate through the apartment.

The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier
The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier

This move also allows the northeast facing living room to receive light from the bedroom window during the day. 

On the bedroom side of the spine wall, it is finished with upholstered fabric to give a close acoustic environment. The opposite side of the wall is clad with full height mirror, useful for dressing and helps to expand the sense of space in the hallway, doubling the perceived area. 

The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier
The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier

In order to maximize storage space and to facilitate moving the WC and washing machine, the floor level changes through the design.

The living room steps down from the hallway creating more height, whilst the bedroom is accessed via 3 steps which gives a more intimate environment, whilst creating much needed storage space under the bed.

The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier
The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier

The steps also double as informal seating when we have guests.The Folded Apartment is situated in the heart of Shanghai’s French Concession, on the 2nd floor of a 1930’s lane house and looks onto a leafy street.  It was designed and built by MDO in 2014/15.


The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier
The Folded Apartment
© Raphael Olivier


The Folded Apartment
Floor Plan
The Folded Apartment
Floor Plan


The Folded Apartment
Section
The Folded Apartment
Section


The Folded Apartment
Exploded Diagram
The Folded Apartment
Isometric
The Folded Apartment
Isometric