Basmanny Apartment is a minimal apartment located in Moscow, Russia, designed by Blockstudio. This apartment is happily situated in a quiet area of downtown Moscow. Its windows look out on Moscow’s winding old streets reminding the clients of a Paris flat they had once lived in and the ambience of which they wanted to recreate in their own space. However, the apartment is part of a newly built block, with its modern architecture not lending itself easily to an implementation of stylistic elements of a Parisian flat.

Given all this, the Blockstudio architects proposed an interior design that would not be a direct reference to its location, but made use of diverse textures and materials and their juxtaposition that is so typical of a Parisian flat.The parquet of old oak is made to the architects’ design. A transparent brass-framed partition separating the dining and living room area from the kitchen sets off the coolness of the kitchen marble floor while creating a feeling of a single space.

However,it also hints at a traditional layout in which a cooking area is cut off from the rest of the flat.The two children’s rooms are separated by a sliding partition that allows to transform them into a single space, if necessary.The furniture and lighting has been selected so as to highlight the juxtaposition of textures and materials that are diverse in color and feel. But the main focus of the space is on the paintings and collector’s design pieces. While some of them come from the hostess’ collection, others have been sourced from a Moscow AlinaPinsky Gallery and carefully selected by the architects to add to the feeling of transcendence of time and space.

Photography by Mikhail Loskutov