When encountering apartments built around the 1960s in their original condition, they typically feature very long corridors with numerous doors and little natural light until one reaches the main room: the living-dining area. They also frequently display a textured wall paint finish known as gotelé (stippled plaster), a technique that was highly prized at the time.

The apartment subject to this refurbishment, built in 1963, ticked all these boxes: it possessed a large L-shaped corridor painted in yellow stucco that led to the bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen, with the living room located right at the end. The primary objective of the refurbishment was to eliminate this long corridor and flood every space with natural light.

The small kitchen, which overlooked the building’s internal lightwell, was extended and opened up towards the living area and laterally via large sliding timber and glass doors. This visually opens up the space, effectively making the walls of the old corridor disappear. In the only remaining section of the corridor wall, we created a recessed shelving unit, transforming this passageway into a storage feature illuminated by indirect lighting via LED strips beneath the shelves.

The entire dwelling was refurbished with a focus on finding storage solutions, which are always in high demand. In the new entrance hall, by utilising a module of white lacquered wardrobes, we integrated the door to the guest WC, creating a clean and uncluttered look for the apartment’s entrance.

Regarding materiality, we combined timber with grey tones. Furthermore, all walls were skimmed to remove the texture and painted white to achieve a modern, contemporary aesthetic.