One of the most relaxing colors is green and when the green is soft or a shade value it is even more relaxing that the brighter, bolder hues, the same can be said for wood, a natural pale wood such as pine is incredibly calming and when a home features pale woods and shades of green it is relaxing and yet invigorating at the same time – like a breath of fresh air.
As though considering the Block Village to be a walk outdoors, HAO Design also designed the interior door openings in the shape of house silhouettes, suggesting you are traveling from home to home rather than from room to room.
Located in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, Block Village is only 40sqm or 430.5sqft so HAO Design made the most of every area, including the foyer, which is covered in tile with a shoe rack on one side that doubles as a bench and also is a viewing station to the living room.
The living and dining area are an open plan design with a wall of cabinets that that stretches from one zone to the next with the dining area featuring open shelving and the living sporting closed storage.
On the other side of the foyer is a stairwell is a study tucked into the niche created by the stairwell that leads to the master suite upstairs.
A private room where the downstairs washroom is located also creates the office niche. Above the washroom is a walk in closet accessed by a bridge over the office niche.
As soon as you enter Block Village, the organic flow of the home combined with the pale woods and soft greens, the feeling of Zen is very apparent. Calming, relaxing and filled with a lighthearted sense of well being.
That sense of refreshment continues as you enter the social zone with its minimalist layout and hidden storage.
Even the TV has been considered with its flexible bracket that lets the unit pull out and pivot for more comfortable viewing.
Aside from using calming colors and wood tones to define Block Village, HAO Design also used vertical shape and light to create a sense of continuum and connectivity. The home is a split-level design with the living, dining, kitchen and bathroom on the main level, the study and Washitsu/2nd bedroom one level down and the master suite upstairs.
The kitchen is tucked into the space next to the stairwell and beside the dining room. This is one place where wood and green do not prevail, boasting instead a bright white facade of millwork and tile.
The pristine white of the kitchen offers a symmetry to the white walls that surround the bathroom and walk in closet.
The length of white creates the sense of light permeating the inner core and by choosing deeper hues on the outside walls this sense of light is unconsciously exacerbated.
This is especially true in the evening as the natural light slowly disappears With the clever use of clear glass panels and reflective white walls, the core of the home is lit with reflections.
One section of glass that is not clear is a smoked glass step that begins the journey down to the lower level.
Downstairs, hidden from view, next to the office niche is the Washitsu room, entered from beneath the stairs.
The Washitu room is also the 2nd bedroom. It is a place for family fun, quiet and cocooned by the master suite above and the kitchen cabinets on the other side of the wall.
In the Washitu room the floor mats pick up on the shades of green used throughout the home and the walls are kept a crisp white.
The master bedroom above the Washitu room is separated from the walk in closet by the bridged mezzanine that is also a small library of pine shelving.
The inner wall of glass keeps the master bedroom connected to the social zone below and the room continues the visual flow via the soft greens and pine headboard.
While a pale green is the predominate shade of green, the wall leading up the stairwell is a much deeper shade that in certain lights almost reads as black – almost.
The door to the master suite is a peaked wood door surrounded by glass, the complete opposite of the void in the walk in closet that is surrounded by wood.
Unlike the rest of the home, the walk in closet is filled with pinewood both veneered or solid, with the only visuals of green coming through the doorway and the window overlooking the social zone below.
HAO Design
Photography by Hey!Cheese
Aside from green color interior design, HAO Design loves to use multiple color combinations as part of its architectural stories, sometimes soft and relaxing like Block Village and sometimes playfully bright like in his LEGO inspired decor.
