When you’re given a brief to design an apartment that hosts clients and collaborators for a fashion company, to say the stakes are high would seem like an understatement. But if it there was any nerves behind the scenes at Atelier Barda, we certainly can’t see them. In designing both the apartment and furniture for this Montreal loft, they have thoughtfully curated every element to create an elegant yet welcoming interior.

DESIGN Atelier Barda | PHOTOGRAPHY Adrien Williams

Described as ‘a cross between a hotel room and loft apartment’, the design simultaneously feels like a penthouse and an upscale hotel suite, or perhaps just like your most stylish friends’ city apartment. Taking a minimalist approach, the layout of the apartment was reconfigured to make the spaces more freed-up and fluid. The simple layout works to complement the original structure, which was deliberately left visible to contrast with the careful treatment of the new interior details and materials.

Through their furniture design studio Foraine, the designers at Atelier Barda also designed all the freestanding furniture, adding individual character to the spaces. The plush leather couches and oversize coffee table act as the focal point of the living room, their round forms subtly contrasted with the grid metal bookshelf and marble bench that line the two parallel walls. The dining and kitchen areas favour a darker palette, featuring a solid oak table with a black metal tubular base, matte black stained oak cabinetry and marble benchtops and splashback.

Creating a space for a diverse and ever-changing rotation of guests is no easy feat. But Atelier Barda have met the challenge and then some, creating a space that manages that seemingly impossible feat of being ‘effortlessly’ stylish while still containing soul and personality. Minimal in details yet rich in materiality, we can’t see this space going out of style any time soon.

Seems we’re not the only ones impressed by the work from this young Montreal studio. In 2017, Atelier Barda was cited by Azure magazine as one of Canada’s 30 avant-garde architectural firms, and in 2015 the practice was selected among 13 emerging architectural and design firms across Canada by Twenty + Change Next Generation.