There is a lot to be said for living in the city, where you can have everything that you want and need

where you can have everything that you want and need right on your doorstep.

But there are challenges,

But there are challenges, city real estate can be very expensive.

And sometimes that means living in a smaller space.

Thankfully, good design can come to the rescue.

And that is exactly the case with this next, stunning apartment

that we're about to visit, here in Northern Australia.

Hey Doug, how's it going, mate?

Hey Doug, how's it going, mate? Hi, how are you?

Hi, how are you? Great, thank you! Really nice to meet you!

Great, thank you! Really nice to meet you! Nice to meet you too!

This is a very cool part of town that you're in, isn't it?

(chuckle) Yes, in the "it" part of town.

Now you're an architect, aren't you?

Now you're an architect, aren't you? Yes, yes I am.

So this must have been a really interesting opportunity for you to create something very special in your own home.

Yeah it was a bit of an experiment, so this used to be a

and was then converted to an apartment.

So when I came along and saw the plan, I thought that it could use an update.

Well, I am very excited to check out the inside of the apartment and see how you transformed it!

Can we check it out? Sure, after you.

Thank you very much!

This is such a great-looking space!

It's super-interesting the way that you've done all this.

It looks like that you've essentially constructed everything out of plywood.

Yep! I do want people to come in and see the apartment in

So what size is this apartment?

It's 28 square metres, it's roughly four and a half by six metres.

What was some of the key characteristics that you wanted to put into this apartment?

I think it was quite a primal instinct to

have a cave as you come in

and then open up toward the light in the next room.

So coming in to the kitchen and seeing a glimpse of

the light beyond is quite something.

So the existing condition of the apartment was really luxurious

in the sense that they had a full bath in the bathroom.

So, you know, the bathroom becomes a lot more utilitarian

than potentially what they used to have.

And I've thought the kitchen should absorb a bit of that space.

So what I did was knock down

load-bearing walls in this apartment

and to provide a clear space within the internals of the apartment

we put in a beam and the beam runs across the width of the apartment

It's about 7.4 metres

And what it does is it picks up the load from above

It's keyed into the walls on either sides,

and allows me to place walls as I want in the internal space.

And, talk to me about your kitchen space!

So I found that 1.8 metres is all you need for a kitchen.

And the width is quite limited, so

what happens is if you go deep

then you find you have more than enough space

for prepping food and then

maybe washing vegetables, and then

you just move out to the side

and then when you're washing up

the dishwater is where you need it to be on the right.

And what about the storage in the kitchen?

The storage is full height

it's just to give you that sense of space in the kitchen

and what happens is you can access it from both sides

so practically when you're reaching for food stuff down here

on the other side, there's a step-up that allows you to reach the items that are a bit higher-up in the cupboard.

It's really interesting what you've done here

because you've got these very beautiful, modern fixtures

that are built in with plywood

But it's offset against the original brick in the building.

Yeah, so high contrast is what I'm after

And I like what you've done here with the space for putting your shoes.

the detail was just to create an alcove for the shoes.

And then I see you're even hiding a washing machine in there as well!

and there's a washer-dryer combo.

kettle, rice cooker

and then it flows into a sort of threshold space.

And then before moving into the living space proper,

we have your bathroom in here.

Right, so what I wanted to do is have the tiles

visually continue from the kitchen to the bathroom.

And then at the end of that you have this full height

into what is actually a very small space.

It certainly does.

One of the things that I especially like in the bathroom is the way that you've done the lighting.

Having that light panel come through from the living room is such a nice touch.

small space

and that feeling is intensified by the colour of the tiles

and the proportions of the bathroom

so what I wanted to do was to have light at both ends

so you can still have that feeling

of openness and extension of light

even though it's a small space.

So it's about contrast again offsetting dark against light

about textures

That is undoubtedly something that you have done very well in this space.

Thank you.

Now I am excited to see what you've done in your living space!

Can we check that out? Ok, step through!

This is just so nice.

It's so interesting, the way that you've created

these two very different feelings/spaces inside the home.

The first area with the kitchen and the bathroom

felt a little bit darker, a little bit more enclosed,

and then walking into this space,

you just have a complete

here it's just a living space

so it's more about that feeling of relief as you come in to the light.

So the irony is that in a tiny apartment

what you want to do is to create some separation of zones.

So the functional zones as you enter

and the clear living space for the bulk of the space.

And what we did was think of the functionality of the three zones,

at the front, there's the kitchen, this sort of little threshold/wardrobe.

and then there's the bathroom.

The arrangement of which creates this combination of a portal and

And then we have your workspace here.

Now this is a very important place in your home

because obviously you're an architect and you do a lot of your work from home.

Yeah so, it's nice being able to be in the space,

in the mornings especially, and then feeling the sun

shift from this side over to the west

throughout the day and feeling that passage of time

within the living space.

And talk to me about the workspace that you've created here.

pushes the boundaries of what is practical

In this instance, I wanted a work desk

All the clutter and

and then what I do when I wanna play