Residential / Singapore / 2023

The Monochrome Loft

A 96 sqm shophouse loft for a couple who worked from home in the same room and had started to resent it.

Arched plaster niches in graded whites, with a single upholstered chair below — LIME PLASTER / SINGAPORE

Scope: Interior architecture, joinery, acoustic strategy
Area: 96 sqm
Duration: 6 months

Problem

01 96 sqm holding two full-time desks
02 Reverberation of 1.4 seconds
03 No boundary between work and rest

Design Approach

A 3.2m panel on a floor-mounted bearing pivots to divide the volume, then sits flush against the joinery wall and disappears. Lime plaster over a perforated substrate and a full-width curtain in undyed wool absorb sound while reading as white. The bed lifts into the joinery by day.

Result

The same volume divided, the far half reading as a separate room — Drag to compare

The original open volume, a single unbroken space with no division at all — Drag to compare

The loft with the panel open, reading as one tall volume again — PANEL / OPEN

The work corner, fitted into the same joinery run as the living half — DESK / JOINERY

Translucent panels in graded whites across the north elevation — PLASTER / GRADED

reverberation time: 1.4 to 0.6s reverberation time
usable floor returned by the concealed bed: +9 sqm usable floor returned by the concealed bed
permanent alterations to the leasehold: 0 permanent alterations to the leasehold

“We stopped negotiating over who got the quiet half. That was the whole brief, though we never phrased it that way.”

— Private Client, Singapore

Discuss a project like this

One room that becomes two, then one again.

The Monochrome Loft

Problem

Design Approach

Result

Zenith Studio

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