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July 10, 2016

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Home » Sunday » Home and Design

‘Book of Changes’ inspires refined home

A refined taste combined with an abundance of space and the river view make Arthur Wang’s 500-square-meter apartment the perfect place to host all his friends.

Located on a top floor of a high-rise building in Pudong New Area, it is strategically located right where the Huangpu River bends, overlooking both the Bund area in Puxi and the Nanpu bridge.

He said that the view and the location as well the outlook of having a good investment were reasons to buy this apartment, but it’s not just that. “It reminds me when, living in USA, I would drive on the Lake Shore alongside the beautiful Lake Michigan in Chicago.”

“Because of its magnificent views and incredibly good location, I wanted to turn this property into an exclusive ‘private club’ where my family and friends can enjoy Chinese culture and traditions, facing such nice city landscape,” he added.

Wang found Shanghai-based Italian designer Nunzia Carbone from DEDODESIGN. The two were introduced by the Consul General of Portugal, who recommended Carbone based on the worked she had done at the consulate’s premises in Shanghai in 2010.

“I had always liked Nunzia’s works because of her uniqueness and elegant style of her design that combines Italian design principles with a profound understanding of traditional Chinese culture,” Wang said.

Designer Carbone said the client’s vision was to design a place of refinement and conviviality inspired by traditional Chinese culture and interior design principles. “We have worked very closely with ideas and motives from the Chinese classic text, the Yijing or ‘Book of Changes’. Wang wanted a special place for his friends and family to enjoy tea, entertain guests, listen to classical Chinese music and enjoy the astonishing views of the river and cityscape,” Carbone said.

The designer rationalized and remodeled the interior space. “It’s now much more functional and very pleasant to be in,” she said. With an aim to minimize clutter and maximize space, they have created a larger reception and function area for entertaining guests and more intimate rooms for smaller gatherings as well as private areas for Wang and his family.

“I would call the interior style a contemporary re-interpretation of the motif of the bagua ‘eight trigrams’ derived by the ‘Book of Changes’ and other classical Chinese texts. We have also made use of the theory of the five elements of water, wood, earth, fire and metal in our design. The whole design concept aims to instill a sense of harmony and wellbeing inspired by traditional Chinese elements,” the designer said.

Carbone is deeply inspired by classical Chinese furniture design and by the garden ensembles of buildings, rock formations, calligraphy and decorative artistic pieces of the Jiangnan area of China.

The design highlights in this space are all inspired by this aesthetic context and make explicit references to it. The elegant wooden screens and partitions are hand-made by woodwork specialists.

She has designed a series of motives and patterns inspired by bagua trigrams that unfold elegantly in all the wood screens, the door panels and on the corridors’ paneling.

Woodwork specialists have installed the polished panels of ginkgo and fir and created bookcases to display antiques, screens and door panels of great beauty and elegance, according to Carbone.

The color scheme also came from the five elements and combines ideas of simplicity, nature and power to make an environment of harmony and serenity appropriate to entertain guests.

The palette combines white plaster work, some bright gold colors in the corridors, pale and darker woods, and some more muted earth tones for the fabrics and upholstery.

Regarding the furniture selection, Carbone helped the client throughout the process, down to every single detail of design and decoration. All the decorative pieces belong to the client whereas the soft furniture and lighting installation are imported pieces of Italian design.

Carbone emphasized that one of the most basic principles she applies in interior design is a search for simplicity and harmony. “A room should not be bursting with all sorts of common objects. What is important is the proper placement of a few exquisite objects and lights,” she said.

This principle also echoes with Wang’s appreciation of traditional Chinese aesthetics and philosophy. The secret is to strike a fine balance by combining tradition with contemporary aesthetics.

Wang said: “Carbone has the ability to translate motives from Chinese classics, like harmony, ying/yang theory and bagua into a living space for contemporary urban life. Like the gardens in Suzhou, my apartment combines privacy and private enjoyment with urban life.”




 

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