Art Box by Sparks Architects. Capitalising on a generous floorplate combined with the soaring ceilings and clerestory lights of a re-purposed industrial building, this inner city apartment is an innovative pied-a-terre that breaks free from typical apartment living. The architectural response is essentially a house, garden, and terrace – all within the original warehouse shell. Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones.

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The previous warren of rooms were stripped out completely to provide a huge bright, airy, space. Floating within this is a cocoon – black steel clad and oak lined – containing the quiet spaces of the master suite with its ensuite and walk-in robes. This cocoon sits free of all structure, except the floor, within the volume of the entire apartment flowing around it, allowing the full original industrial ceiling and clerestories to fly across the space overhead.

The industrial aesthetic of the hot rolled steel plate cladding around the cocoon contrasts with the warmth of timber detailing to provide a strong, sculptural counterpoint to the light (and art!) filled gallery space of the original shell.

Floors throughout the apartment vary not just in levels, but in materials as well. Along one side an indoor, Japanese inspired, pebble garden is created complete with an ‘outdoor’ shower.

The journey from the front door of this apartment, within a building of conventional loft-type conversions, is an adventure of changing textures, levels, brightness, and culminates in the large open living space which looks out over a small balcony or back inside to a vibrant light-filled space.