Bello

Client: private
Location: Belgrade, Serbia
Category: residential
Year: 2010
Design: Sinestezia
Principal in charge: Ana Zatezalo Schenk
Project Team: Čedomir Ristić, Nataša Vukosavljević, Danijela Roksandić
3D visualisation: Milan Grubanov

Bello apartment is located in a 1970’s four storey building, 5 km from the city center of Belgrade, Serbia. With a panoramic view of Belgrade, the building is surrounded by a park dominated by evergreen trees. The existing apartment was 100 m2 with three-bedrooms, small and poorly lighted rooms, low ceiling height of 2.5 m, long corridor with no natural light and a bathroom without windows. The main task in reconstruction of the apartment was to achieve a continuity of space and communication, and at the same time create the quality of intimacy of separate spaces by combining a lobby, dining room, living and working rooms. Above all, it was necessary to open the ceiling in order to achieve sufficient height. The concrete ceiling structure, typical of architecture from the 70’s, became the inspiration of the entire refurbishment shaping the design of floors, lighting and furniture elements. Using a variety of curtain arrangements, sandex, shelves, parapets and partitions, a bright and light space, of flexible purpose was obtained. By creating a visual contact between the kitchen and bar, an elevated sense of space is achieved. Communication between the foyer and hallway leading to bedrooms and kitchen corridor, makes a steady continuity, which is consistent with the flexibility of the apartment living zone. Large window areas are now fully open to the park, with which the presence of nature in the home is intensified. The coffered ceiling with its diffuse illumination corresponds to the floor graphics, featuring white lines that contribute to the dynamics of the whole apartment. Furniture is in accordance with the basic idea, specially designed for this occasion. The contrast between solid and stable and light and floating, is expressed with a dining table, a traditional element in a family environment which in this way takes its contemporary form. Desired contrast is completed by applying white color, which made the space light and unobtrusive. The structure of the asymmetrical shelves, follows walls and interior elements, and thus become a special visual motif which is not drowned by the rest of the interior. Bello apartment is a contemporary, multi-layered space, balanced with its airy compartments forming new functional wholes and purposes. On the other hand, its exciting informal ambience, loses its limits in white, and becomes an accomplice in resistance to ordinary and everyday habits.