Gold Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2022
Elemental Lounge Living Room and Bar
- A' Design Award 2022 Gold Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Erika Zielinski Studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 32,549
- Verification code 228C7A53F6 · Verify this award
About Elemental Lounge Living Room and Bar
Elemental Lounge is an interior design for a living room and bar area of 60 square meters. The space is divided graphically into black and white to represent day and night during the equinox, when both last exactly 12 hours. Harmony is achieved through contrasting textures and materials, including wood, iron, fabrics, pottery, fur and precious stones. Furniture, lamps, rugs and fittings were custom made by Peruvian artisans. A hanging lamp of transparent and smoky quartz holds an LED light, and the coffee table contains a large amethyst geode.
Within the distinguished tradition of conceptual interior design, Erika Zielinski's Elemental Lounge Living Room and Bar presents a profound meditation on the complementary nature of opposing forces through spatial composition. This remarkable environment, recognized with a Golden A' Design Award, employs the ancient philosophical concept of duality as its generative principle, manifesting the interplay between light and darkness, warmth and coolness, presence and void within a unified domestic setting. The designer demonstrates exceptional command of material vocabulary, selecting identical furniture silhouettes and decorative objects while transforming their character entirely through chromatic treatment—pristine whites become deep blacks, bleached woods transform to ebonized surfaces, cream textiles shift to charcoal velvet. This methodical inversion creates a space that functions simultaneously as two distinct environments and one cohesive whole. The suspended glass chandelier serves as both literal and symbolic bridge, its transparent pendants catching and transmitting light across the boundary zone while suggesting the moment of transformation where opposites merge. Technical accomplishment reveals itself in the meticulous attention to tonal consistency within each hemisphere—the light zone maintains unwavering luminosity while the dark zone achieves saturated depth without becoming oppressive. The inclusion of natural elements, particularly crystalline geode formations and living plants, introduces organic unpredictability within the structured geometric order, suggesting that even within systematic design philosophy, space must remain for spontaneity and growth. Viewers might contemplate how this space reframes the domestic environment as philosophical territory, inviting meditation on balance, transformation, and the essential unity underlying apparent opposition.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Is it possible to achieve harmony in a small space facing up to the most radical contrast in the color palette? The goal was to design a memorable but harmonious and cozy space with a touch of natural glamour using only black and white, exploring different textures and materials like wood, iron, fabrics, pottery, fur, and precious stones.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The Venue of Casacor Peru 2019 event was a former summer palace which was donated as an inheritance to the orphaned children of Lima by its former owner Perez Aranibar. The space chosen to design was 60 square meters.
- Tags
- interior design, black and white interior, livingroom design, chic interior, luxury decor
- Production Technology
- Every piece of furniture, lamps, rugs and fittings were custom and hand made by peruvian artisans and manufacters. The lamp hanging over the coffee table is an original design by Erika Zielinski that represents rain and was made of transparent and smoky quartz with led light inside. The rug was made half white and half black. The coffee table, also black and white, contains a giant amethyst geode. The white sofa was upholstered in 100% cotton fabric, the black and white sofa was upholstered in 2 colors of velvet and sewed with great precision before covering the sofa.
- Design Challenge
- Every piece of furniture and design elements: lamps, carpets, stone fittings and even some accesories, where designed and custom made for this space. The time to prepare for the Casacor Event is very short, only two months for design and construction.
- Project Duration
- The project started in July 2019 and ended in September 2019 in Lima Peru
- Operation Flow
- This space is very versatile, it can be used as a residential environment or as the lounge of a luxury hotel.
- Research
- Traveling from Saint Petersburg to Helsinki, it was very interesting to realize how two cultures with such similar climatic conditions have developed a cultural point of view as opposite as day and night. While the Nordic style looks for light and composes its interiors with white over white, Russian modern design prefers drama, composing its spaces with black over black.
- Inspiration
- This project was created for "Casacor Peru", the most important architecture and interior design exhibition of the Americas. The topic was "Planeta Casa", meaning our planet is our home. The inspiration to design this space graphically divided into black and white was to represent day and night during the equinox, when day and night are exactly 12 hours long. The challenge was to achieve harmony working with the most radical contrast in the color palette, dovetailing the contrast using only different textures and materials, and ultimately representing consonance and peace between opposites.