Back to our next property of House Flipper: Room 404!
As its name suggests, this is just an apartment unit. And if you've played enough games, you'd recognise this as an Easter Egg... Or should I say: a Halloween Egg of the Silent Hill horror franchise!
May I present to you the design challenge of the day...
Flipping a Haunted Apartment into a Boutique Design Studio!
The chosen default buyer is Gorgio Shanua. Extending his identity as a stylist (vague description, so let's just move on), I developed a brief where his dwelling also functions as his workspace, aka a boutique studio!
You know the drill: our first step of design...
Rooming and Zoning.
Gorgio needs a bedroom, closet, bathroom(s) with two(!) bathtubs, a sauna and zero kitchen space. Man doesn't eat. Okay...??
Last but not least, the two main spaces of this project:
The meeting room, where he meets his clients; and the studio, where ideas are woven to life.
But here's the catch.
There are no such rooms as "meeting room" and "studio" in House Flipper.
If I were to sell this house for profit, I need to be sneaky creative to bypass the game requirements. I tricked the system designed the meeting room as a "living room", and the studio as an "office".
Let's put these spaces into their respective zones (public, semi-public and private):
Public zone - the meeting room (living room) and the powder room
Semi-public zone - studio (office)
Private zone - bedroom, bathroom and sauna
Translating to our architectural diagram:
By overlaying the diagram directly onto the empty floor plan, we could already see the final layout:
SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats. In simple terms, the purpose of SWOT analysis is to understand the advantages and disadvantages of a subject.
In architecture, SWOT analysis provides better understanding of the site.
Every site is unique, and a good design is one that responds specifically to their site.
This apartment's PLUS point is its strategic location overlooking the city. Look at the view: the game developers have done a tremendous job!
404 million dollar view. 404... get it? Get it?!?! LOL :P
Now, which room deserves these views? Naturally, this opportunity should be given to rooms where one would spend the most time in. For Gorgio, I decided it would be his bedroom and studio.
Gorgio's Business Meeting Room, the "Living room"
The typical setup for client discussion is a table and a couple of chairs. However, I decided to go with a more casual approach: Gorgio treating his clients like close friends at a cosy coffee shop.
Design Studio, the "Office"
Designing an interior is to understand the workflow. What would Georgio require for work, and how? The simplest is a workstation (duh) and storage (heaps).
Having worked in the creative industry myself, I can boldly say half of the job is searching for inspiration.
So the same goes for Gorgio! I developed this concept by giving him the Hall of Inspiration:
After designing the two spaces, I suddenly pondered upon a fundamental design question.
How do I draw the boundary between the meeting room and studio without them being two completely separate spaces?
After all, the studio has such an amazing view of the metropolitan city. Having a solid wall simply means wasting the picturesque view!
In the Camping Bungalow for Dolan Trusk, I've used furniture to divide spaces.
Is there another method where I could draw the boundary via architectural means?
Vertical Louvres acting as Wall Partitions
Yup, I'm creating my own partition wall! I constructed this using the in-game mechanics of full-height walls and lintels:
Indeed, this is the same trick where you can briefly glimpse through the space beyond between the voids.
Note: House Flipper has an in-game pillar decoration that would work the same. However, the game mechanics do not recognise the pillars as a room separator tool, which is why I resorted to using walls and lintels.
Clothes, Closets and More Clothes!
Being an apartment, there are three full wall spaces. Knowing Gorgio loves his wardrobes, I decided to utilise all the wall space for his closets.
P/S Evidently, having wardrobes away from the bathroom is illogical IRL. For the sake of aesthetics purposes, let's treat these closets as storage or general shelving :P
In other words, a sense of design continuity!
Tip: Gorgio loves more than one closet space. You can once again cheat by-pass the game mechanics by creating 1 small space to house only 1 closet... then all you need is 2 small spaces ie 2 closets! :P
The Rest of the House
The rest of the house is pretty standard.
Since Gorgio would be inviting clients to his property, the client may want to use the toilet. To keep things professional, the design approach is to separate the shower from the public eyes.
Here, I provided a powder room for everyone's use; however, only Gorgio gets to access the bathroom and sauna.
Remember, Gorgio wanted two bathtubs. While I definitely have the space to do so, they don't fit the design narrative. This extra fixture definitely doesn't make sense IRL either... At least not for me :P
So... Design compromise. I only gave him one.
Last but not least, his bedroom. Nothing much to comment on here either, as it's yet another typical arrangement of bed and side tables.
Interior Design Time!
If you have an eye for detail... you may have already noticed the colour theme throughout the screenshots above.
Yup... pink. Like, pink PINK.
His glasses and hair are bright pink (or fuschia, maybe?) so this information sounds legit LOL.
I'm conscious of overwhelming any space with singular colour unless you're trying to make a visual statement e.g. art display.
After a quick search on Pinterest, I decided to introduce secondary and contrast colours, which are white and turquoise respectively.
White breaks the monotony of pink, whereas turquoise acts as the highlight. An accent wall, for instance.
I handled colours surprisingly better than I thought! Never have I imagined myself to be relatable to anything overtly feminine, let alone flipping a haunted apartment into a boutique studio!
Let's see if you truly have been paying attention... do you see another repeating element from all my photos above?
Yup, the carpet! It's the default design of House Flippers: the "Monstera Leaves" pattern or "Jungle" carpet.
What's Next?
All in all, I'm very proud of how this apartment turned out! I definitely think I've improved in terms of interior design and decorating side of House Flipper.
Rest assured, here's my timelapse video on YouTube:
Let me know what you think! Till then, see you!
Disclaimer:
All published media are in-game screenshots as watermarked and therefore belong to mypassion.mythoughts. Kindly contact me should you wish to use any of the published media.