Mad About ModernLawyer David Smith and graphic designer Ra 'ed Alawadhi's renovated apartment melds modernity and warmth PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANTOINE SCHNECK WRITTEN AND STYLED BY CORINNE BENSAHEL when David Smith and his partner Ra 'ed Alawadhi decided to renovate their new apartment, they wanted to create a modern space without the coldness of many contemporary apartments. After much investigation, Smith, a business lawyer, and Alawadhi, the creative graphic designer for the contemporary furniture store Apartment Zero, decided to hire talented architect Robert M. Gurney to design the space. Located in the Wyoming, one of the oldest buildings in Washington, the Kalorama apartment was a sequence of rectangular, contiguous rooms with small windows and no charm. Despite the challenge, Gurney thought the old building could be readily adapted for a modern lifestyle. Reducing the space to its skeleton, the architect had very clever ideas to rebuild walls with interesting shapes, giving him the opportunity to camouflage columns and technical utilities like air conditioning units. Playing with forms, the architect mixed circles and squares, making the space more playful and dynamic. From the entrance, where vases from Contemporaria Washington are on display, one can see through the open shelves the beginning of the living room as if looking through a window in the wall. Gurney used a variety of materials - such as aluminum walls in the bedroom enveloping a flat screen television - to reinforce the modernity of the space. Colors - both serene and bright - are everywhere. Mahogany wood and red painted walls were easily mixed with deep blue surfaces, reinforcing the coziness of the apartment.
Interior designer Therese Baron Gurney, the architect's wife, chose the modern furniture to fit such a fluid space. She shopped extensively and selected the best Italian brands, from B&B Italia for the sofa to Flos for the lighting, to create the effect Smith and Alawadhi desired. The oversized leather ottoman, designed by Therese Gurney herself, became a centerpiece in the leaving room and has been used as both a place to sit and a coffee table. Smith and Alawadhi were careful to choose beautiful pieces of quality furniture with timeless style - such as chairs from McMurray Design and the stools and table from Maya Lynn Knoll Studio - to match Smith's art collection, which includes works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein. The two-bedroom apartment is now organized around a central living room and a very cozy and high-tech kitchen. Alawadhi is a great cook and wanted to have all the facilities to entertain people, both in small and large parties. The living room is a comfortable space with a huge circular cutout in the ceiling and geometrically shaped cutouts and display spaces in the wooden cabinetry. While still working as a graphic designer at Apartment Zero, Alawadhi also directs interior design projects. It's no surprise that his vision of contemporary spaces is a combination of high tech modernity and traditional warmth and comfort. Obviously, there's no place like home
|
||||||||||||||||||
