Award-winning Interior Design
Article by Cheryl Gatward. Photography by SPCA Visual Marbella
The Marbella-based interior design and architecture firm, UDesign, have just won the 5-Star award for “Best Interior Design” for the design of the apartment “Maison Lumière” in Tangier, Morocco in the African Property Awards (2020-2021). They will now go on to compete for the title of "Best in the World” in the International Property Awards.
Last year UDesign were also award winners in the “Architecture Single Residence” category for the design of the fabulous Villa Alcuzcuz on the Ronda Road. They won “Best in Spain” and then went on to win “Best in Europe”. We’re looking forward to seeing them triumph again, but this time in the Interior Design category.
Maison Lumière, is located in the new urban marina of Tangier – Tanja Marina Bay. This corner apartment started life as two separate apartments, one with a view to the coastline of Tangier and one with a view out to sea. UDesign gutted both apartments taking out the doors, walls and floors and completely redesigned the space.
The bright and spacious finished apartment has 3 bedrooms, two guest bedrooms and an extensive master bedroom. The decor is full of Moroccan references expressed in a very contemporary style.
Aside from a few carefully selected brand name pieces, all the doors, cabinets, shelving, kitchen cupboards, coffee tables, dining table, sofas, beds, bedside tables and wardrobes were designed and custom-made by UDesign.
The client had very specific requests in the design brief and one of these was to create a “jaima”, a classical element of Berber culture. A Berber desert camp would have a designated space around the fire, or secluded by a tent, where men could congregate to discuss important business matters and smoke shisha. The circular nature of elements in this area evoke the spirit of the past, where elders and guests of the tribe sat in a circle around the fire, under the desert stars.
While the design of this jaima is far from its origins, it is clearly set up to encourage quality conversation. The porthole style Sovet Italia mirrors are reminiscent of cruise liners and allow someone standing in the kitchen to see the boats entering the port.
The positioning of the space also helped the client to alleviate the stress of a busy lifestyle. His work takes him constantly back and forth from Spain to Tangier, so not only can he sit here and look out at a beautiful bay with its busy maritime traffic, but he can also see when a ferry is arriving. There are 72 of them every day between Spain and Tangier, and they can be spotted approximately 30 minutes before arrival in Tangier port. So rather than look at his watch, or the internet, for ferry times, he now looks out the window and knows that he has just over half an hour from that moment to catch the same ferry heading out again. This is easily achieved as the walk from the apartment to the ferry terminal takes just ten minutes.
“IMPRESS ME”
Of all the requests made by the client, this was the most difficult to achieve, both in its creation and application. UDesign finally concluded that lighting, sound and technology would impress most, so they set out to create a spectacular smart home system.
LEDs offer many advantages over traditional light bulbs, lasting longer, being more energy efficient, having a high brightness level and coming in an exceptional range of colours, along with many other features. A selection of white and RGB colour schemes allows the client to set the mood for the entire common area at the touch of a button. The result is that this apartment is a masterpiece in domotic solutions. Domotic software is only as good as the lighting and appliances that complement it, and in this case there are approximately 200 metres of LED lighting, along with various pendant and floor lamps.
The system can be programmed to slowly change from one colour scheme to another, creating a relaxing flow of coloured light throughout the entire apartment. The lighting can be controlled by the clients phone (or any of his personal devices) and also by voice command. When the client first saw this lighting he said it was “beyond anything he had ever imagined”.
MASTER BEDROOM SUITE
It was very important for the client that the bedroom be an independent suite, on par with that of any five-star hotel. Consisting of a lounge, walk-in wardrobe, bathroom and bedroom itself, the space is divided into areas by a smoked eucalyptus panel holding the TV and the LED fireplace. As expected in a suite of this quality, there is a TV on both sides of the central panel.
Anyone getting out of bed during the night (on either side of the bed) will activate a sensor which will turn on very low level LED lighting, marking an easy path to the bathroom without awaking the other partner. The grooved eucalyptus wooden panel above the bed has integrated LED lights, just in case the client feels like adding a twist to his alarm clock routine!
To see more images of this apartment:
https://www.udesign.es/interior-design/projects/tangier-apartment/)