Interior Design Apartment C

This small scale project, in the historic center of Cluj-Napoca came as a bigger-than-expected challenge, when we were tasked to design a reconversion of an old subpar apartment in a historic 19th century condominium building, left deeply scared by a series of succesive modifications and subdivisions.

The fist hurdle came in the form of a complex “re-discovery” proces of the old from of the apartment. We where able to rediscover to our greatest surprise a series of walled-in windows, closed off with drywall boards that still preserved in their bowels the original windows with the original building hardware made entirely of brass in Budapest, walled in doors and beautiful hand crafted Art-Deco terracotta stoves. Having come to know our building well we started to redesign the space to suit our clients wishes for a 2 bedroom family apartment while at the same time working on restoring the former light and bright nature of the space.

Thus began a painstaking restoration of the original windows and doors and a careful reconstruction based on the original models of the windows and doors replaced in such an  “inspired” manner with PVC ones by the previous owner; a light and practically minded re-functioning of the spaces;  a thorough and high-tech reworking of al the technical systems in the house (including electrical and CCTV systems, floor heating driven by an air-to-liquid heat-pump, a high efficiency fresh air ventilation system with a heat exchanger for a 90% recuperation of heating energy, a smart thermostat system, completely new plumbing system and many more) and a complete re-finishing of all surfaces.

We used a lot of natural materials like wooden floors (placed at an angle to compensate for 19th century lack of perpendicularity), teracota tiles and glass. We worked with a minimalistic approach on furnishing, with clean modern furniture pieces for the living room and custom design furniture (designed in-house) for the kitchen/dinning area, the bathrooms and the bedrooms made from solid wood.

One highlight of the apartment is the 19th century Art-Deco tile stove that was made in Vienna, now restored to its former glory.