A Young Artist’s Home in Collected Time by Mountain Soil Interior Design

Located in Shanghai’s Jiading District, A Young Artist’s Home in Collected Time is a 105-square-meter apartment renovation that reimagines contemporary urban living through memory, materiality, and personal expression. Completed in 2025 by Mountain Soil Interior Design, the project transforms a standard three-bedroom layout into a deeply personal artist’s residence—where architecture becomes a vessel for collected objects, lived experience, and creative dialogue.

Reimagining Urban Apartment Living in Shanghai

In high-density cities like Shanghai, residential interiors often follow rigid, standardized templates. This apartment was no exception, originally configured as a conventional three-bedroom unit with compartmentalized spaces and limited spatial fluidity.

The client—a young artist—envisioned a home that would preserve the natural texture of the existing structure while integrating his extensive personal collection of furniture, artworks, and design objects. Rather than imposing a new aesthetic, the design approach focused on revealing authenticity and allowing daily life to unfold organically within the space.

Mountain Soil Interior Design responded with a renovation strategy centered on subtraction, spatial reconfiguration, and material storytelling—prioritizing emotional resonance over decorative excess.

Spatial Transformation: From Standard Layout to Fluid Living

To better suit the client’s lifestyle, the original three-bedroom layout was restructured into two bedrooms, creating more generous living and storage areas. Unnecessary partitions were removed to connect the kitchen, dining, and living spaces into a cohesive open-plan environment.

This spatial fluidity allows the home to function simultaneously as a residence, studio extension, and exhibition backdrop—reflecting the evolving role of domestic interiors in creative urban life.

Bulky household appliances were carefully concealed. The refrigerator, positioned at the front of the hallway, is wrapped in finishes that blend seamlessly with surrounding surfaces, reducing visual clutter and preserving spatial calm.

The Corridor as a Transitional Landscape

A defining architectural gesture in the renovation is the treatment of the corridor. In many apartments, hallways are purely functional passages. Here, it becomes a tactile and symbolic transition zone.

A natural stone slab marks the entrance threshold, subtly elevating the floor plane and signaling movement from public to private space. The corridor is wrapped in timeworn wood, introducing warmth and depth while reinforcing the project’s central theme: collected time.

This interplay between stone and aged timber creates a layered material narrative—echoing Shanghai’s own juxtaposition of history and rapid modernization.

Sustainable Interior Design and Reclaimed Materials

Sustainability plays a central role in the project. The design emphasizes recycled and weathered materials, extending their lifecycle through thoughtful integration.

Wall panels, door handles, bathroom basins, and shower partitions are crafted from oxidized stone slabs aged over decades. Their patina reflects natural processes rather than artificial finishes, reinforcing the home’s quiet authenticity.

Much of the furniture is vintage or sourced from the client’s personal archive, including collectible pieces by renowned designers such as Osvaldo Borsani, Pierre Guariche, Pierre Jeanneret, and Studio Oliver Gustav. These curated elements coexist with the client’s own creations, forming an interior that feels both intimate and museum-like.

By repurposing materials and incorporating existing furnishings, the renovation reduces material waste while celebrating craftsmanship and historical continuity—an approach aligned with sustainable interior design principles in China’s evolving residential market.

A Home as Dialogue: Art, Memory, and Dwelling

At its core, A Young Artist’s Home in Collected Time explores the idea that a residence is more than a container for daily routines. It is a layered spatial structure shaped by dining, sleeping, working, and making—by gestures both ordinary and creative.

Here, architecture does not compete with objects but frames them. Surfaces remain tactile and understated, allowing artworks and collected furniture to breathe. The home becomes a dialogue between space and inhabitant, past and present, function and emotion.

Through subtle material interventions, spatial subtraction, and curated integration, Mountain Soil Interior Design delivers a refined example of contemporary apartment renovation in Shanghai—one that balances sustainability, craftsmanship, and personal narrative.

A New Model for Creative Urban Homes in China

This project stands as a compelling case study in adaptive residential interiors, demonstrating how small urban apartments can be transformed into deeply meaningful living environments. It reflects broader trends in Chinese interior design: sustainable material reuse, flexible layouts, and homes that merge living and creative production.

By honoring natural textures, integrating vintage furniture, and reshaping spatial flow, the design redefines what it means to dwell in a fast-paced metropolis—proving that even within 105 square meters, time, memory, and artistry can coexist harmoniously.

All the photographs are works of  Wen Studio