Upon entering the apartment you step into the “front yard”, a flexible space where you can exercise, practice yoga, play somatosensory games, do some gardening or just sit to chat and watch television. Landscape elements such as terraces, stones, fences and pergolas have been reimagined as minimalist interior elements like the stepped floor design and the bespoke modular furniture that can be arranged to serve different scenarios. Case in point, the cold-bend veneer backrests that Scale Forest Atelier designed: lightweight and sturdy, they can be easily moved around so you can sit or recline on the sofas or floor.

Moving further inside the apartment, a timber clad passageway on the one side leads to the “reading alley”, an intimate space housing the owners’ book collection, and then to a study which doubles as a relaxation room complete with wide views of the city and river and a secret foot bath, while a kitchen area on the other side leads to a pantry and guest bathroom which loops back to the “reading alley”. At the centre is the built-in dining table which the team designed as part of an undulating wooden structure that includes kitchen cupboards and other storage spaces. Featuring a stainless-steel top, it stands out against the surrounding wooden surfaces in line with its role as the apartment’s physical and social focal point.

Minimalist in aesthetic yet charming in ambience, the interiors are bright and airy with a muted palette of white and light grey in the “front yard” and kitchen areas juxtaposed with the timber-clad sleeping quarters and more intimate “reading alley” and study, parts of which were built using the apartment’s original African Okan wood flooring. Having seen their fair share of wear and tear after 20 years of use, the floorboards were sanded, polished and waxed and used for the passageway ceiling, the guest bathroom flooring, and the frame of the master bedroom’s internal window which allows natural light into the windowless “reading alley”. The latter is part of a long list of simple yet unexpected gestures – including the stunning views of the city from the showers, sliding doors that completely disappear into the walls and the hidden footbath under the sitting deck in the study – that attest to the designers’ attention to detail as well as the human-centric approach to design.