How the Apple Workers Live: American Minimalism in a Moscow Apartment

There is no room in this apartment for a young couple.stereotypes: in the hallway, guests are greeted by a huge Indian elephant on the wall, and in the center of the bedroom there is a vintage black bed. The author of the project, designer Yulia Kirpicheva, talks about these and other deliberately selected items. The owners of the apartment are a young couple. They met, as often happens in the 21st century, through mutual acquaintances on a social network: she herself added him as a friend and began to actively put “likes”, and he could not help but react to them. After the meeting, feelings flared up immediately, and after a short time, the young people began to discuss their life together and the interior of their future apartment. The designer took on the task of helping them realize all their plans, ideas and wishes. Yulia Kirpicheva, designer Yulia was born and raised in Moscow. Her father is the artist Grigory Roshchin, so her choice of profession was determined from childhood. She graduated with honors from Moscow State University of Design in 2011 and from the Details School in 2016. She has been involved in interior design since 2010, and her portfolio includes private and public interiors. Yulia’s projects and articles are published in leading magazines and on popular Internet resources. She considers her principle in work to be a conceptual approach to interior creation. www.kirpichevaj.com Style The entire interior is based on one of the most influential and striking styles in the history of American design — the mid-century modern style. The choice in its favor was made for a reason: at one time, the owner of the apartment lived in the USA and worked for Apple, and the American lifestyle with its scope, comfort and, at the same time, minimalism is very close to the young man in spirit. Yulia Kirpicheva, designer: — When thinking about the future interior, the client often recalled American interiors and the feelings he experienced in the snow-white design studio of the legendary Apple, where there was nothing superfluous — only that very feeling of freedom and inspiration. At first, his fiancée was embarrassed by his slightly ascetic ideas about the interior and the abundance of white, but later she agreed that the interior is the background of life, and the main thing is not things, but feelings. The color palette of the interior is based on a contrasting combination of white and black in different variations and diluted with color accents of shades of sky blue, soft green, pearl gray and garnet.Hallway The first thing a person sees when enteringapartment, — a large-scale image of an Indian elephant on the entire wall of the hallway, a mirror of an unusual shape and a small console. This art object, combined with vintage details, is designed to immediately set the right mood and communicate: you are not in an ordinary apartment. And it is unusual because the owners are extraordinary people who do not like stereotypes. Thinking differently is a way of life, and this philosophy extends to the interior as well.Lounge area The central room in thisapartment — a living room, or lounge area. Almost all the objects here are streamlined and not chosen by chance. The semicircular linen-upholstered sofa by the famous designer Vladimir Kagan is not only very comfortable, but is also a classic of American design and is the quintessence of the mid-century modern style. The coffee table by our contemporary Emmanuel Babled is made of volcanic lava. Some of its modules are painted azure and serve as a color accent in the interior.Eclecticism of the lounge area interioremphasizes plastic — the main product of the "golden era" of design. The vintage console and chairs in the so-called conversation place — the communication zone — are made of it. It is also worth noting the graphics of the French artist Françoise Gilot. Her works are also displayed in the office. All of them are dated 1959 and were bought at auction.The watercolor in the zone also carries a semantic loaddining room (work purchased on 1st dibs) - an apple that fell on Newton's head, as a symbol of the impetus for a solution, which was preceded by a huge amount of mental work. At the same time, watercolor also serves as a color . The leg of the round dining table is made of solid teak, and the tabletop is made of tulle, a patented modern coating.Cabinet Cabinet (or gadget room) is a source of prideowner of the apartment. The interior of this room embodies a feeling of freedom and infinity. A complex and deep, but at the same time warm tone with a matte structure was chosen as the basis of the color palette. The blue-black color of the walls and ceiling visually changes the perception of space: the dark ceiling goes into infinity. In the office, we find ourselves in a zone of distorted reality - the feeling on which the legendary Apple was based by its creator.The desk is made of solid teak, veneer— golden-toned grey oak. The 5 cm thick oak shelves are equipped with lighting installed in the cabinet cornice. The cabinet also has a pull-out tabletop at a height of 110 cm for more convenient work. The carpet design was developed by the iconic American deconstructivist architect Daniel Libeskind.Yulia Kirpicheva, designer:— The key element of the study’s interior is a metal pendulum created by furniture designer and mechanical engineer, representative of modernism Philip Lloyd. The pendulum was purchased at Sotheby’s auction and refers to the owner’s education in physics and mathematics. Bedroom The American scope is also present in the bedroom — first of all, it manifests itself in the large-scale painting of the built-in wardrobe, occupying its entire surface. The frame of the niche in which the wardrobe is built is made of garnet-colored suede of a slightly dusty shade. The linearity of the pattern and the matte structure of the pearl-colored background contrast with the satin texture of the gray-jasmine-colored wall. Vintage suitcases covered in woven leatherMexican buffalo with exotic wood trim, are located next to a low vintage bed with a black lacquered headboard and reflect the owners' love of travel, change and learning new things. The nearby rugs made of matting with woven silk thread continue this feeling. The blinds are made of teak and painted in a blue-black color - this is how the owner of the apartment imagines the night sky in Andalusia, which she loves very much.Yulia Kirpicheva, designer:— The interior needs not only the right colors and textures, but also its own sound and special rhythm. The bedroom in this apartment is filled not only with the play of light and shadow, but also with sounds. Thus, the installation by the bed is filled with an easily perceptible metallic sound from the wind coming through the open window. Its prototype was the work of designer Harry Bertoia, one of the brightest representatives of the mid-century modern style. The quiet sound — the rhythmic clatter of train wheels — became a reflection of the owner’s dream of an engineering education and designing carriages. Bathroom The model of the chandelier in the bathroom is called “Clouds”, and the same name for the design could be given to the marble from which the aprons of the sinks are made and which the floor is covered with. The cabinets under the sinks are made according to sketches from moisture-resistant MDF, painted according to the RAL system. The “boudoir” gray-pink shade serves as a backdrop for vintage mirrors, cast-iron faucets and a modern bathtub made from a single piece of honed Carrara marble. A graphic work purchased from a Paris gallery and a vintage chair upholstered in chinoiserie velvet complete the image of a boudoir in the clouds.Apartment planThis interior featured: Hallway: