Inspired by the blue screening devices on the facade of the Torbreck building in Brisbane’s Highgate Hill, Kin Architects have brought vivid colour into the kitchen of this two-bedroom apartment with a bold and expressive methodology.
The client – an environmental scientist who spends a lot of time on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island – loves the sea, so it is fitting that the ocean hues were brought directly into her city home. Joinery in calming blue hues wraps around the kitchen walls, framed with spotted gum trims to accentuate and define the room’s geometries.
The kitchen’s aesthetics and shade acknowledge the modernist history of Torbreck. Kin Architects director Leah Gallagher explains that the work replaced an original late-1950s blue kitchen with a contemporary interpretation, paying homage to the former fitout, which had reached the end of its life.
Realising a kitchen with this intensity of colour requires a healthy dose of client trust. “We showed her the blue, and she was completely sold on it from the beginning,” says Leah. “It feels intentional when you step out onto the balcony, and you see the other touches throughout the building.”
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Kin Architects wanted the kitchen to feel like furniture inserted into the space, sympathetic to the existing finishes. The joinery extends into storage, connecting to the living space. “We wrapped the blue the whole way around so you feel enclosed, and offering contrast to the external wall,” adds Leah.
Facing south-west, the apartment is challenged with low light, and so the design team turned to touches of white and reflective surfaces to brighten the interior. The splashback tiles feature iridescent circles made from melted and pigmented recycled glass sourced from old computer monitors, which evoke the sense of peering at life under a microscope. Above the tiles, a mirrored splashback invites river views into the heart of the kitchen. On the tall pantry cupboard doors, textured rippled glass bounces extra light around the room.
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To finish off the kitchen, the white benchtop and tap invite nostalgia. “It offers that mod feeling, as you might see in The Jetsons … It’s futuristic and suits the vintage of the building,” Leah says.
This joyful project revels in the joy of renovating apartments – an opportunity to be bold and to take advantage of small spaces with city views. The new additions are perfectly at place in this modernist building, while also being a delightfully personal home for an ocean lover.
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