Dezeen Magazine

Starburst House by HAO Design

HAO Design uses pastel hues for pitched-roof apartment in Beijing

HAO Design took advantage of this apartment's peaked roof to turn it into a bright and spacious family home, finishing its interiors with a selection of pastel furnishings.

Starburst House by HAO Design

Starburst House is set within the city's Haidian District and belongs to a young couple and their son.

The apartment – which measures 116 square-metres – was purchased as an empty shell, with its steeply slanting roof being the only stand-out feature.

Starburst House by HAO Design

The bare space was handed over to Taiwan-based studio HAO Design to be transformed into a family home that would suit the client's "open-ended, unfixed, and flexible" lifestyle.

Keeping the rest of the brief simple, the husband, who works from home as a software engineer, and wife, who is an architecture editor, solely specified that a study should be included in the floor plan.

Starburst House by HAO Design

HAO Design decided to preserve the apartment's asymmetrically pitched roof, allowing them to insert a mezzanine that plays host to the child's bedroom and a secondary bathroom.

"[We] believed that the construction of the ceiling, despite its difficulty, was actually [the home's] most beautiful area," the studio explained.

Accessed via a set of chunky concrete steps, the upper level features integrated shelving that runs the entire length of the wall. A light timber desk has also been slotted into one corner to provide the clients with a small work area.

Starburst House by HAO Design

On the ground floor there is an open-plan living area, which has been dressed with a grey sofa, baby pink dining chairs, and mint green pendant lamp.

Light hues have been applied in the kitchen, which has pale blue cabinetry and a white tile backsplash. Here the studio has installed a set of sliding doors that can be drawn back and forth to offer different levels of privacy.

Starburst House by HAO Design

The wall that separates the kitchen from the playroom has been fronted with a panel of chalkboard where the client's child can draw or write messages.

Inside, the playroom has a series of mountain-shaped wall cushions that echo the form of the property's roof. A bright orange curtain with cut-out windows has also been put up at the room's rear to create a small play fort.

This lower floor also accommodates a perforated entryway and the master bedroom.

Starburst House by HAO Design

HAO Design has previously converted a skinny Taiwanese townhouse into a furniture store and turned a 1980s townhouse into furniture shop and cafe in Taiwan.

Photography is by Hey!Cheese.

More images and plans

Starburst House by HAO Design
Floor plans
Starburst House by HAO Design
Starburst House by HAO Design
Starburst House by HAO Design
Starburst House by HAO Design
Starburst House by HAO Design
Starburst House by HAO Design
Starburst House by HAO Design