Rather Two Apartment
RATHER TWO APARTMENT
DORON Atelier, OMAMBO
ARCHITECTS
DORON Atelier, OMAMBO
LEAD TEAM
Anca Lungu, Kelvin Silva
DESIGN TEAM
Omambo
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Tudor Migia
MANUFACTURERS
Genuin, Muuto, Poemboem, ZigZagZurich, Zonda
PHOTOGRAPHS
Clement Vayssieres, OMAMBO | Kelvin Silva
AREA
80 m²
YEAR
2026
LOCATION
București, Romania
CATEGORY
Interior Design
English description provided by the architects.
Rather Two, an intimate 80-square-meter apartment in Bucharest, is a home shaped as much by emotion and memory as by design.
Realized by architects Anca and Kelvin, the project emerges from a reflection on two distinct yet equally influential cultures: Anca's Romanian heritage, rooted in symbolism and lush landscapes, and Kelvin's Angolan origins, shaped by rituals and earthy terrains. These cultural narratives became the guiding path for the apartment's color palette, materiality, and spatial choreography.
The design enhances the apartment's existing architecture: varying ceiling heights of up to three meters, defined room division, and an eight-meter-deep living space, into an experiential journey. Through deliberate contrasts of compression and decompression, the home unfolds as a series of complementary atmospheres that engage the senses and expand the lived dimension of the space.
This approach manifests in the project's signature "two-box" concept: a Green Box and a Wood Box.
The Green Box creates a strongly introverted moment upon entering the home, before revealing a living area that connects to the surrounding cityscape, filtered through the crown of a historic tree.
The Wood Box preludes the arrival in the sleeping area, transporting the visitor to a calm and balanced environment.
In contrast to the apartment's given sharp geometry, the furnishing chosen purposefully explores soft, rounded edges in order to wave in much-needed fluidity and freedom of movement. This gesture is echoed in every detail of the design.
Custom furniture pieces, realized with local carpenters, respond to the apartment's complex geometry while maintaining a coherent design language.
In order to maximize functionality in a small home, the 8-meter-long living room was redimensioned. A new space is created behind a double-faced acoustic curtain.
A single unit transforms seamlessly between bedroom, office, and dressing room, defining a new multifunctional room.
Rather Two is intentionally unconstrained by stylistic definitions.
Instead, it explores confrontation and dialogue between heritage and new trends, ornament and minimalism, softness and roughness.
Each material is selected for its sensorial impact: warm wood, rough stucco, cold stone, and soft textiles invite touch as much as sight.
Sustainability plays a pivotal role, from natural raw materials to innovative applications of recycled PET boards in collaboration with Smile Plastics, adding unexpected textures, translucency, and color.
Art and craft continue to define each space.
Romanian painter Dragoș Bădiță's works resonate with the character of individual rooms, while international creatives - Dutch visual artist Jacco Bunt ("Seasonal Garden" carpet, and UK illustrator Jody Barton ("The LSD Marathon" wool blanket, both by ZigZagZurich) spice up the discourse on locality.
Strategic seamless integration of both local artifacts and global design icons from Muuto and Flos gives the design atemporality and universal relevance.
The cultural representation peaks through three artistic interventions designed by Anca and Kelvin. One of these examples is: The custom marquetry artwork built by Kelvin, entitled Infinite Sunset, was crafted with ALPI Italy's patterned veneers illustrates the couple's personal union while merging references from Romanian sculptor Brâncuși and the Angolan Chokwe tribal mask.
Rather Two is ultimately a home that embodies the union of cultures, of creative visions, and of personal identities.
Realized alongside the architects' marriage, it is a deeply emotional reflection, where motifs, materials, and spatial composition converge to create a dwelling that is at once personal, cultural, and profoundly experiential.
