Mise En Place - Empt Studio

Mise En Place
Location: Kuala Lumpur
Typology: Residential
Year of completion: 2021

To truly portray a client’s personality to a given space is no easy feat. We were recently tasked with the challenge of injecting the unique quirks of these homeowners into their dream home. With their love for culinary adventures, we’ve titled this Residential project as “Mise en Place” — commonly used in the culinary world, where ingredients are measured, cut, and organised before cooking. Much like living, we believe every structure, every nook and cranny, must have its own purpose, before one turns a defunct space into a home.

Understanding the clients’ needs, their tech background means they often work from the comfort of their own home. With limited access to natural light and small awkward spaces, this was part of the challenge in transforming this house into a cozy home and inspiring place to create. That said, we decided to make some essential structural changes to their home, shape-shifting dead ends into functional spaces.

By demolishing a pre-existing wall by the kitchen, the couple now has a wider space that links to their dining table. On top of that, making the best use of the uneasy cul-de-sacs in the house, we’ve constructed a camouflaged walk-in pantry and a shallow bookshelf, this creates more spaces to allow beautiful organization and display their favourite belongings. Built in speakers, consoles and smart switches add to the effortless and purposeful uncluttered philosophy of the living spaces. In effort to optimally draw natural light into the space, wall frames and door openings were expanded to full height which creates ‘moving walls’ maximizing the light coming in from the existing floor to ceiling windows. In addition, an arch was added at the doorway that leads to the yard for natural light to funnel back and subtly illuminate an intimate corridor.

To fulfil a life of balance, the master bedroom was divided into two separate spaces, for resting and creating. With an efficient space planning, a walk-in wardrobe was also delicately fitted into the bathroom. Meanwhile, a wall with a translucent opening was introduced into the bedroom not only as a partition but also to diffuse harsh light from the bedroom’s floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing one to wake up to pristine lighting in the morning. On the other side of the room is a dedicated space for solitude, a space for collaboration. Bathed in natural light, they are able to work and unwind in serenity — allowing them to express their need for spaces for ‘making’, ‘playing’ and ‘being’ inherently.