As Wished reworks a 200-square-meter duplex apartment in Guangzhou by treating the inherited high-rise interior as a generic residential shell rather than a finished space. Through curved plaster form, a sectional reorganization centered on a sculptural stair, and a material palette of stone, walnut, reclaimed timber, and lime-washed surfaces, the project shifts the apartment away from the standardized logic of tower housing toward a more spatially differentiated domestic environment.
As Wished Technical Information
- ArchitectsJade Simple Design
- LocationGuangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Gross Area200 m2 | 2,153 Sq. Ft.
- Project Year 2025
- Photographs© Boundary Photography
We chose to cast aside the fixed physical boundaries of the building and reimagine the space from within, forging an entirely new form that is fluid, light and gentle.
– Wen Chao
Reworking the Generic High-Rise Duplex
The project begins with a clear position on the contemporary tower apartment. Rather than accepting the duplex as a privileged residential format, the design treats it as a single unit within a repetitive vertical system, shaped by standardized construction and generic planning. The intervention is therefore less about furnishing an upscale shell than about correcting the emotional and spatial flatness that often accompanies completed high-rise interiors.
This recalibration is pursued through interior form rather than wholesale erasure. Curved plaster envelopes, chamfered transitions, and rounded junctions work against the rigid geometry typically inherited from speculative apartment construction. In the foyer, the walls and stair volume appear hand-shaped, producing an immediate shift away from the crisp and anonymous language of the tower. That same formal softening continues into the living room, where the ceiling curves upward and outward, making the room read as a formed volume rather than a compartment inserted within a concrete frame.
The treatment of openings is equally important. Double-height glazing at the main facade expands the perceptual field of the living space, while an arched upper window and smaller circular apertures frame selective views of sky, foliage, and distant city fabric. These devices do not dissolve the fact of living in a dense urban tower, but they reduce the sense of enclosure that often defines such apartments. The result is an interior that directs attention beyond the facade and treats view as a spatial extension of the room.
Stair, Void, and Section as Spatial Instruments
The staircase is the project’s decisive architectural gesture. Rather than functioning as a compact connector between two levels, it is given volumetric weight and formal continuity. Its hand-formed plaster underside, pale stone treads, and continuous cream-toned balustrade establish a strong figure that can be read from the foyer, living room, and upper landing. In a domestic interior of limited footprint, this emphasis on the stairs as mass gives the duplex a sectional center.
What makes the stair effective is its relationship to the surrounding void. The ascent unfolds through a double-height space that gathers light from above and the main facade, making circulation a spatial event rather than a transitional necessity. The upper landing is shaped as a domed plaster shell punctuated by recessed lights, while the curved parapet maintains visual continuity with the living room below. The stair, therefore, operates less as an inserted object than as the primary instrument through which the apartment is reorganized in section.
This sectional thinking also links the two floors through planted elements and framed glimpses. A tall interior tree rises through the void, and foliage reappears at upper level through a porthole opening and the edge of the landing. These vertical correspondences soften the stacked logic of the duplex plan. Instead of two independent floors connected mechanically, the project constructs a layered domestic interior in which movement, light, and view bind the levels into a single spatial sequence.
Open Domesticity and Non-Standard Program Boundaries
The ground floor is organized as a loosely continuous social field. Foyer, living room, dining area, kitchen edge, study, and stair retain functional legibility, yet their limits are rarely defined by full enclosure. This arrangement allows the apartment to support different rhythms of daily life without reducing flexibility to an empty, open-plan space. Spaces remain specific, but they participate in a larger shared atmosphere.
Programmatic clarity is maintained through built-in elements and local architectural cues. The walnut display and wet-bar wall mark a threshold between the entry and living zones while also serving practical needs for storage, sink access, and display. The kitchen is not fully exposed; instead, it is mediated through a framed pass-through set into a curved plaster wall, making food preparation a visible yet controlled background presence. At the rear, the study is compact and defined by integrated shelving and desk joinery rather than by heavy separation from the rest of the plan.
This approach suggests an alternative domestic model for dense urban housing. Flexibility here is not based on neutral white space or movable partitions. It emerges from tuned adjacency and visual porosity, in which each area supports several modes of occupation while retaining its own material and formal identity. The living and dining spaces, for example, can host gatherings, reading, or solitary use precisely because the surrounding elements support them without overdetermining their function.
Material Atmosphere, Craft, and Interior Character
The project relies on a carefully balanced material register in which roughness and refinement coexist. Lime-washed plaster sets the dominant tone, creating matte, absorbent surfaces that register curvature and light with unusual softness. Against this, honed limestone stair treads, travertine bathroom walls, dark slate floors, walnut cabinetry, and reclaimed timber accents introduce density and grain. The apartment gains character not from visual excess but from the friction between these materials and the way they are joined.
Architectural details reinforce this sense of crafted assembly. Porthole openings recur across levels as devices of framing and continuity. Fluted timber doors, arched walnut surrounds, perforated wall inserts, and integrated stone and timber fixtures generate a vocabulary that is consistent without becoming uniform. The reclaimed timber column passing through the walnut cabinetry is especially telling. It gives the joinery a found condition, as if the interior were assembled through adaptation and accumulation rather than delivered as a finished package.
Furniture, planting, and filtered light contribute to the overall atmosphere, but they remain secondary to the architectural effect of material continuity. The double-height living room combines leather seating, a heavy dark stone table, woven floor covering, and indoor trees to produce a deliberately inhabited setting. In the private rooms, the palette shifts toward darker tones, with charcoal timber flooring and travertine surfaces deepening the sense of enclosure. Across the apartment, the stronger achievement lies in how crafted surfaces and tactile materials detach the interior from the generic finish standards of high-rise development and establish it as a lived spatial environment.
About Jade Simple Design
Jade Simple Design is an open creative design agency based in Chongqing and Shanghai, founded in 2017. The studio works across architecture, landscape, interior design, furniture, and other diversified fields, guided by its design philosophy of Liberal Pragmatism. Taking the authentic demands and connections between people, spaces, and objects as the foundation of its design thinking, the practice creates practical and engaging spaces and object works.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Xiaoxue Ban, renowned fashion designer
- Other contributors: Overall Coordination, Jade Simple Design
