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space matters: inside a z-loft

A couple of weeks ago, we had the privilege of having the first peek into our high school friends’ z-loft condo residence in Makati. While the floor area (around 70 square meters) is comparable to most high-end condominium units, the vertical clearance above the living area created an illusion of a spacious interior.

At the second level, there’s a nook adjacent to the staircase which was made into a study/home office. While a large desk was already in place, there’s still enough room for a slim vertical chest of drawers beside the desk and a set of bookshelves behind the work space for additional storage.

The bedroom is also spacious. It was able to easily accommodate a queen bed, two large side tables, an arm chair, a console table and a built-in closet.

Congratulations A & A on your new “home”!

home tour: fresh love, fresh space

I’ve always liked visiting homes of young couples and young families. Aside from their fresh and youthful aesthetic point of view, I noticed that young couples also manage to make their homes efficient without looking like a huge closet filled with built-ins.

This condo residence in the South is the new home of a young couple after living with their in-laws for almost two years. They told us that this is their first taste of “independence”. Independence means that they now do everything themselves including all household chores! Good thing that they chose to make their home supportive of an independent lifestyle.

Instead of maintaining the three-bedroom layout of the house, the couple decided to convert one into a den/entertainment room that opens to the living area (below), and the other into the masters’ en suite walk-in closet.

In spite of the relatively compact space, they were able to fit in their open kitchen a washer-dryer (hidden inside the cabinet beside the refrigerator), a dishwasher, and an oven. It also has a glass backsplash which they use as a message board where they write reminders, to-do lists, and even recipes.

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Reflecting the couple’s personalities, this home looks simple, easy, and happy. While the interiors are mostly done in basic white, black and gray, pops of color can be seen everywhere through their paintings and accessories, rendering this home with a fresh and welcoming appeal. df

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space matters: jigs adefuin’s home in the city

It is always a treat to visit a designer’s home. Because designers usually adapt to their clients’ style and taste, they don’t usually get to exercise their “creative freedom” when doing design projects. Oftentimes, their home is their venue where they have the liberty to apply all the ideas that have always wanted to try, sometimes to the point of having an idea overload. Surprisingly, this is not the case for my friend, Jigs Adefuin, who knew from the start how he wants his condo to be designed.

Jigs and I were officemates in my first job at Focus Global Inc.(FGI). He now has a successful practice together with his partner, Oliver, who takes care of the construction management arm of the company. I was just supposed to interview Jigs and Oliver for a Condo Living feature. But because Ana and Green Guide were also free that afternoon, I brought them with me to shoot the interiors for df.

Jigs and Oliver share this 3-bedroom condominium residence with their two dogs, Pucci and Krypton. Jigs used a lot of black and gray–two colors that he loves but his clients are not too excited about.

We love his pair of Arturo Luz paintings of the Palitana Temples in the living area (above & top photo), and the paintings of df’s creative director, Lilli Beth, in the dining area and in the hallway. They are the only sources of vivid colors in the entire living-dining-kitchen area.

The bedrooms are full of surprises! The compact office (above) also doubles as an extra guest room with a pull-down bed (below) built under the overhead cabinets. The turquoise guest room beside it, where Oliver’s mom stays when she visits them in Manila, has its own commode disguised as a chair. Because of the limited storage, even the small space behind the TV of the masters’ bedroom was made functional by integrating a pullout rack for cologne bottles and accessories.  Cool!

Jigs was recently named as one of Philippine School of Interior Design’s (PSID) 10 Interior Design Iconoclasts (congratulations!). To know more about Jigs’ past design works, check out his website here. Also, grab the June issue of Condo Living magazine which includes a couple of features about him. {thanks Jigs and Oliver for welcoming us in your beautiful home!} -ardel

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space matters: ‘slide’ house

It would be a dream for every child (and maybe for the child-at-heart) to have playtime all the time.

Good news! The guys from Level Architects, a design studio in Japan, just made that fantasy a reality by building this ‘Slide House’, a three-story house with a combination of a staircase and a slide that encircles the interior. With half of the loop in typical stairs and the other half in a 2-level slide, the occupants have the option to descend by the stairs or by slide.

Apart from the slide, the house also has a ball pen in the living room area to be consistent with the playground idea.

According to the designers, by placing the slide along the ‘daily flow line’ of the stairs, instead of just introducing a playground in the building, the home itself becomes one big playground and daily life is like a never-ending playtime.

Don’t you just love how the Japanese think?! They can turn such a profound idea into a fun and amusing design. I guess it also helps that they have an audience (clients) who are also willing to think out of the box.

*images via Level Architects. see the restof the photos here

christmas around the world

We’re taking pangangapitbahay to the next level as we take a peek at the homes of other families to see how the rest of the world spruce up their spaces for the holidays.

First stop is the cotton candy-colored home (above) of graphic designer Danielle Thompson (USA).

Above is an interesting hanging wreath from Veronika in London.

In Seattle, Dottie Angel spells her holiday shout out on her mantel.

Kleofe from Switzerland gives her wall a touch of color with a garland of flaglets and some Christmas balls.

In Mexico, Rosa Maria goes natural with a wreath of lavender leaves.

The traditional red color takes center stage in the home of r_okoko20 in Ireland.

It’s a white Christmas (with a touch of red) in Rebecca Wallenta‘s home in Austria.

Finally, in Netherlands, Wood and Wood Stool‘s home goes green with a Christmas tree made of reclaimed wood.

Hope you enjoyed our quick holiday tour! df

space matters: big pieces for tiny spaces

As apartments and homes shrink in size, a lot of people think that their furnishings also need to become smaller to fit their tiny residences and to make the space look much bigger.

Not necessarily.

The common misconception is that by making your furniture smaller, you make the space look bigger. Unfortunately, the opposite happens—smaller furniture requires you to have more pieces of one kind (for instance a chair) to accommodate a certain number of people. This, in turn, will make the space look cluttered because you have several items occupying such a small area.

In dealing with small spaces, the trick is to stick with the standard sizes of furniture (especially for sofas, chairs and beds), limit the pieces to what you only need (avoid “accent pieces” because you don’t have enough room for them), and keep all surfaces simple and clean to avoid visual clutter.

Take this 36-square meter condominium residence for example. This apartment can realistically and comfortably accommodate a couple with a child, or three individuals, at the most. Therefore, the interiors maintained its open plan layout, much like a hotel suite, without any partition separating the bedroom from the living-dining-kitchen area since privacy is not exactly an issue. This allowed for a standard double-size bed, a desk & chair, a wider-than-usual two-seater sofa, a coffee table, and a low TV cabinet to all fit in the small area with just enough space to move around.

The sizes of the dining table and coffee table (above) are much bigger than what you would normally put in a condo. But because they’re both in glass, they don’t seem to take a lot of space.

This apartment comes with an extra room for storage and closet space. Since space is very precious, this space was made into an extra bedroom as well. By making two-thirds of the cabinet into an overhead storage, a standard single bed, which functions as a sofa during the day and a bed at night, was able to fit underneath (below).

As long as you simplify your furnishings, keep everything organized, and minimize possible sources of visual and physical clutter, your relatively small home might just be the perfect size for you. df

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space matters: living room + classroom

It’s amusing how one can alter an experience by simply changing the physical features and appearance of the setting. I think this approach towards space makes it possible for The Living Room Photography Studios to provide an unconventional experience in taking up photography and in “classroom” learning.

Their casual and colorful interiors take out any possible snootiness related with studio photography, while their fun classroom setup makes learning much more interesting and enjoyable especially for the busy and maybe not-so-curious adults.

The Living Room is a fun, laidback, and non-intimidating environment where anyone who’s interested in photography is encouraged to take up lessons and to practice their skills in studio photography. I love how the interior spaces are designed to look like a home. The warm appearance of the spaces makes someone who doesn’t know much about photography feel comfortable and at ease. You don’t have to worry that someone would make fun of you if you don’t know the meaning of SLR!

Apart from photography lessons, the studio is also made available for small-group seminars and workshops on just about any topic under the sun. They call these series of workshops The Classroom. But don’t be deceived by the name. Their classes are definitely not your usual boring lectures in school. Following the concept of The Living Room, The Classroom encourages people to learn something new—a new hobby, a new creative skill, or a new knowledge just to satisfy the curious mind.

Depending on the class, the lecture area could be arranged like a typical classroom with tables, chairs, and writing board (above), or it could be set like a lounge area, by folding up the cantilevered tables (so cool!) and adding a sofa and a couple of side chairs, for a more casual group discussion (below).

Recently, they had classes on the basics of poker with VJ Sianghio, storytelling with shapes with Dan Matutina, and how to console a broken heart with Mahar Mangahas. I told you, they have classes on anything and everything under the sun!

The Living Room is located along P. Guevarra St. in San Juan. For information on their rates, visit their website here. To learn more about the quirky classes in The Classroom, check their website here.

*all images via the living room/the classroom facebook pages here and here.

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best-of series: space matters

It’s Design Folder’s first year anniversary! We can’t believe it’s been a year already since we started

To kick off our celebration, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit what we’ve been up to this past year.  First up, some of our favorite entries from space matters.

Our very first entry was Apple & Jesse’s home

Then we visited the lovely house of Gene & Ache Florendo for Christmas

We also met with one avid antique collector and featured his beautiful casa

Our first out of town assignment was Cebu where we met Ted Gonzales and showed us how you can you integrate art and green building features in your home.

We also found a mid-century-inspired home right inside the UP Diliman campus.

And who could forget Ivy’s white space ?

The rest of our space matters features are HERE. Watch out for more of our best-of series this week! df

space matters: upid’s advocacy

“What will you build? A wall? A roof? A room? Or will you build stronger families, better neighborhoods and brighter futures?”

I saw this in Habitat for Humanity’s website yesterday and made me think about my work. For people like me who are in the design and construction industry, “building” is what we do everyday. But because it has been a part of our daily lives, we tend to forget the meaning and purpose of what we do as builders and designers. We do not just make things pretty and functional; we improve the lives of the people by providing better living and workings environments.

This has been the advocacy of UP Interior Design (UPID) under the College of Home Economics for the past 9 years—to build a better and stronger Filipino society by improving the interior environments of underserved communities and institutions here in Manila. This replaced the typical interior design exhibits that previous batches were organizing.  Apart from helping underserved communities, this annual project also allows students to become aware of the possible impact of their work as future interior designers especially with regards to community building and social change.

Below are the rehabilitation/renovation projects that past UPID students have undertaken:

BID batch AY 2001- 2002 – three underserved institutions: Golden Acres, Study Center for Children, and Gawad Kalinga model unit.

BID batch AY 2002-2003 – the pediatric ward, lobby, doctors’ hallway and chapel of the East Avenue Medical Center (2nd and third images above)

BID batch AY 2003-2004 – a preschool in Payatas, the library and clinic in the Balara Elementary School and the library of the Balara High school

BID batch AY 2004-2005 – Children’s Joy Foundation shelter for children

BSID batch AY 2005-2006 – Barangay Aklatang Pambata (5th & 6th images)

BSID batch AY 2006-2007 – HE Cares Foundation shelter for boys (4th image)

BSID batch AY 2007-2008 – UP Kalayaan Residence Hall

BSID batch AY 2009-2010 – doctors’ clinics at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (top image)

You can read our feature on last year’s Cradle Project HERE. Next week, we’ll share with you this year’s UPGRADE Project that hopes to improve the lives of 7 families! df

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space matters: made to be green

Now on its 26^th year, Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE), an annual competition of Metrobank Foundation Inc., has been giving recognition to up and coming Filipinos in the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture and interior design.

For the past years, MADE highlighted environmental design as the theme for both the architecture and interior design categories to inspire and raise awareness on how environmental issues could be addressed in design. I am proud to say that two of the past winners in the interior design category are our friends from college—April Frigillana (2008 Grand Prize) and Pauline Cuevas (2009 Special Prize).

April’s design entitled “Nature’s Links” (top and above) integrated creative recycling, reusing, and repurposing in her design. Read more about her design here.

On the other hand, Pauline’s “Cool Chic” concept took a fresh approach on sustainable design. Apart from featuring green design strategies, she also made an effort to make her design (below) look and feel young, hip and current to make it more relevant and appealing to the younger generation. “I want to bestow a fresh and young feel to the [interiors], hence the use of lively colors. Sustainable design doesn’t have to be boring,” she explains. More on here design here.

Apparently, one of this year’s winners in the ID category also happens to be a good friend! Will be sharing his winning design tomorrow. -ardel

*images via metrobank foundation inc.