Reconfigured for a young couple, this 27 square-metre apartment in an Art Deco building is the progenitor of our later studio apartment revisions. Key interventions include pulling the kitchen away from a prime position, making space for a screened sleeping alcove, and a better proportioned kitchen backing onto the bathroom, leaving a flexible open living/work space.

This design demonstrates that apartment living need not be a compromise, and that luxury is not determined by size, but spatial quality. A large part of that quality is about building in amenity for apartment dwellers – which is about natural light, generous storage and functional / flexible planning. In this and subsequent projects, we continue to show that well designed, architectural joinery is not a luxury, but a necessity.