Interior Designer’s Apartment Makes a Compelling Case for Quiet Power of Neutral Palette.

There’s a quiet confidence to spaces that resist the urge to shout to announce themselves—and Nikita Kostik’s apartment is that kind of place.

Designed by the architect himself through his practice A01 Studio, this 64-square-metre residence sits on the top floor of a complex built on the former site of the city’s legendary watch factory. The address alone carries a certain weight of history.

What’s particularly striking is how Kostik handles neutrals. In a moment when interiors are drowning in a sea of beige sameness, this apartment proves that a restrained palette is anything but a passive choice.

A Garden in the Sky Becomes the Soul of This Ningbo Apartment.

In Ningbo, China, a designer couple reimagined their top-floor apartment around an unlikely starting point: a three-metre-square garden open to the sky.

Concrete, poplar root, Verde Alpi and Royal Rosa marble, brushed stainless steel—each material selected for its honesty and tactile presence. The tonal range is tight, yet the interplay of texture and surface variation generates visual tension. Nothing here feels flat. Nothing feels safe in the wrong way.

The approach to mid-century modern is equally considered. This isn’t nostalgia dressed up as design—it’s a living language, reinterpreted through the logic of architecture and the specific context of the city. Knoll chairs, USM storage, and lighting by Flos, Atelier Areti, Zieta, Artemide, Ingo Maurer, and Martinelli Luce share the space with Nordic Knots rugs and Iconico and Fantini fixtures, alongside custom furniture and art objects by Kostik himself. The result feels of the moment precisely because it doesn’t try too hard to be.

This Parisian Apartment Renovation Reimagines Art Nouveau for Today.

Given carte blanche by his clients, architect Clément Lesnoff-Rocard embarked on a complete metamorphosis of this classical Parisian apartment.

A complete reconfiguration of the plan opened the apartment into a continuous circular flow, transforming it into something of an observation deck above the city. The skyline enters from every angle—even from the bathroom—making the city itself part of the interior narrative. Natural light moves freely, softening the geometry and lending a sense of ease that keeps the precision from tipping into austerity.

Kostik describes the space as existing between structure and emotion, intimacy and openness—a duality that defines its character. Aesthetics serve the mood rather than dictate it. And in doing so, this apartment makes a quietly persuasive case for neutrals as a powerful design choice: one that demands skill, restraint, and a deep understanding of how contrast—in tone, texture, and form—creates spaces that are engaging, considered, and alive.

50 Shades of Industrial Green: Berlin Apartment Renovation by Christopher Sitzler-Brakel.

In Berlin's lively Kreuzberg neighbourhood, this renovation is the architectural equivalent of your cool grandpa who rocks vintage clothes but knows all the latest TikTok dance routines.

[Images courtesy of A01 Studio. Styling by Yes We May. Photography by Mikhail Loskutov.]