GRAPHĒ: Two Boxes—One Emerald Green, One Wood—Transform an 861-Square-Foot Bucharest Apartment

The entry is a jewel-toned portal with a curtain that can reshape the living area; the wood box creates a hall to the bedroom.

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Project Details:

Location: Bucharest, Romania

Architects: DORON Atelier / @doronatelier

Architect: OMAMBO / @omambogallery

Footprint: 861 square feet

Builder: Publimpress

Photographer: Clement Vayssieres / @clement.vayssieres

Photographer: Kelvin Silva

From the Architect: "Rather Two, an intimate 861-square-foot apartment in Bucharest, is a home shaped as much by emotion and memory as by design. Realized by architects Anca and Kelvin, the project emerges from a reflection on two distinct yet equally influential cultures: Anca’s Romanian heritage, rooted in symbolism and lush landscapes, and Kelvin’s Angolan origins, shaped by rituals and earthy terrains. These cultural narratives became the guiding path for the apartment’s color palette, materiality, and spatial choreography.

"The design enhances the apartment’s existing architecture with varying ceiling heights of up to almost 10 feet, defined room division, and a 26-foot-deep living space. Through deliberate contrasts of compression and decompression, the home unfolds as a series of complementary atmospheres that engage the senses and expand the lived dimension of the space. This approach manifests in the project’s signature "two-box" concept: a green box and a wood box. The green box creates a strongly introverted moment upon entering the home, before revealing a living area that connects to the surrounding cityscape, filtered through the crown of a historic tree. The wood box preludes the arrival to the sleeping area, transporting the visitor to a calm and balanced environment. In contrast to the apartment’s given sharp geometry, the furnishing chosen purposefully explores soft rounded edges in order to wave in much needed fluidity and freedom of movement. This gesture is echoed in every detail of the design.

"Custom furniture pieces, realized with local carpenters, respond to the apartment’s complex geometry while maintaining a coherent design language. In order to maximize functionality in a small home, the living room was redimensioned. A new space is created behind a double-faced acoustic curtain. A single unit transforms seamlessly between bedroom, office, and dressing room, defining a new multifunctional room.

"Rather Two is intentionally unconstrained by stylistic definitions. Instead, it explores confrontation and dialogue between heritage and new trends, ornament and minimalism, softness and roughness. Each material is selected for its sensorial impact: warm wood, rough stucco, cold stone, and soft textiles invite touch as much as sight. Sustainability plays a pivotal role, from natural raw materials to innovative applications of recycled PET boards in collaboration with Smile Plastics, adding unexpected textures, translucency, and color."