A Painted Apartment

Chicago, IL

Awards

AIA Chicago Chapter — Distinguished Building Award

AIA Chicago Chapter — Honor Award Interior Architecture

Photography: Nick Merrick | Hedrich Blessing

Photography: Timothy Hursley

Photography: Wolfgang Hoyt | ESTO

A true lover of art, our client, was no longer interested in living with paintings hanging on the walls — she wanted to live within a painting.

Spaces were defined through architectural elements — backlit glass block walls, furniture, storage cabinets, and perforated metal screens. A highly reflective paint of stenciled dots on the floors, walls, and ceiling extended the space vertically.

The central area was activated by curving glass lightboxes and perforated metal screens of different densities, which created moving patterns and altered the perception of the density of light, the reflectivity of materials, and the color of space.

As light conditions changed and the occupants moved, the spatial reading was continuously transformed by the changing natural light passing through the transparent, translucent, and reflect dot patterns on the screens.

To achieve this, all-encompassing art experience every wall except those surrounding the kitchen and bathroom was eliminated. Opening up the space enhanced views to the windows and created visual unity in a Mies rigorously gridded apartment building.