The Mermaid's Home by Marty Chou is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award in Interior Space and Exhibition Design Competition Category.
IronInterior· 2020
The Mermaid's Home
by Marty Chou
Client: Ms. Lee
A' Design Award Winner in Interior Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #87690The Design
About The Mermaid's Home
The Mermaid's is a residential interior design for a 90 square meter apartment in Taiwan. The space is conceived as a gallery for the owner's collections rather than a conventional home. A mermaid figure from a new collection became the central theme, setting the semi-monochrome palette and the calm atmosphere. Classical molding is used as a design tool. The vertical lines make the space appear higher, and they conceal room doors and storage cabinets. Daily functions are hidden to keep the view simple. Furniture is selected for contrast between straight and curved forms.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
The Mermaid's Home is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. The Mermaid's Home is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. The Mermaid's Home is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
In the beginning, the owner of this apartment, an elegant and beautiful lady, told me: “I’d like to live in a place, where its ambiance is ambiguous, less like a home, more like a sanctuary in dream, where I could be isolated and indulged with my on-going collections in this timeless, sacred space.” During the design process, she obtained a new collection, a mermaid statue. Its serene quality caught me and my mind started to evolve around her.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
I wanted the Mermaid to become the focal point and anchor of the space, the tone of the ambiance, and the source of the material palette for the space. So at the end, the entire space is the extend-dimension of the Mermaid.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
I hope it can be shared with people who love it around the world.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- During the design, came a new collection - a little Mermaid. Her serene quality caught me and my mind started to evolve around her. She became the focal point and anchor of the space, the tone of the ambiance, and the source of the semi-monochrome palette.
In the end, the entire space is the extend-dimension of this fantastical creature. She is the soul of this space; the soul that reflect the essence of the elegant lady. - Dimensions & Packaging
- The interior space is 90 square-meter.
- Tags
- Interior design, Home Gallery, Modern Classic, Minimalism, monochrome space, monochrome palette, Taiwan
- Production Technology
- The classical molding here is used not merely as decoration but more as a design tool. Its vertically stretching quality makes the space appears to be higher than it actually is. It also hides away the doors of rooms and storage cabinets, unified and simplified the visual elements, and create a sense of serenity and calmness for the space.
- Design Challenge
- The main challenge of this project is about finding balance, mainly between practicality and fantasy, decorative and minimal, classical and modern.
- Research
- This project is an experiment of utilizing the owner's collection not merely as ornament, but to be the main concept and inspiration of the space. And also, to incorporate the owner's fascination of classical molding into contemporary design.
- Inspiration
- In the beginning, the owner of this apartment, an elegant and beautiful lady, told me that she would like to live in a place, where its ambiance is ambiguous, less like a home, more like a sanctuary in dream, in which she could be isolated and indulged with her on-going collections in this timeless, sacred space.
- Project Duration
- The project started in July 2017 in Taiwan and finished in June 2018.
- Operation Flow
- To respond to the owner's wish to live in a not-home-like place, I conceive the entire space as a gallery of her collections and display of her taste. Daily function and storage are hidden away to create a sense of optimal airy-ness, so the eyes only see the most essentials. Furniture selection focuses on the quality of contrast between straight and curve, thick and thin, light and heavy, as they are displayed sculptural pieces. As for the Mermaid, its elements are used throughout the entire space; the choice of materials, the fabrics, and colors, are all inspired by her.
- Image Credits
- Photo Credit: Kyle Yu Photo Studio
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