East Meets West In This Multi-Storeyed, Minimalistic Home

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How do you blend Scandinavian simplicity with Taiwanese culture? This multi-storeyed home, designed by Taiwan’s HAO Design and photographed by Hey! Cheese has the answer. Using white walls, wood and block shapes, this home remains minimalistic while still showcasing Taiwanese anime culture. Using wooden blocks to separate out spaces, vast panes make small areas look spacious, and room intersections look seamless, while anime fixtures dot themselves around the periphery of the rooms. Interspersed plant life in the block design adds colour and vibrancy, while a Mediterranean concrete façade, complete with block windows, harks back to an intelligent interior.

A striking feature, the wooden block staircase is the first introduction to this bicultural home. Using three types of wood for shelving, tables and floors, the living space retains simplicity with clean, simple lines, retaining interest through muted-pattern throws and rugs. Potted and hanging plants add life.

As the day darkens, main living spaces take on alternate functions. The kitchen table turns into dinner. The bedroom’s low-lying furniture affords a view up a level, and lighting illuminates over surfaces, drawing attention away from their casing fixtures. A white rail ensures safety without structural interference.

Views up and down the staircase, the home’s central feature, make for a cathartic experience. Housed in a small space, white walls and solid wood lifts visitors to higher plains within the structure. Plant life greets and farewells each viewer from ceramic box holders.

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A spark of colour with a bright, turquoise desk breaks the simplicity of the interior, afforded by the concrete flooring and toned-down wall colouring. Cute elements such as ceramic doves insert a Taiwanese quirk into random spaces.

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The block theme continues seamlessly throughout the home. Reflected in the staircase design, French windows and fragmented wood panelling, each block elements tells its own story. Small spaces use the block design to insert light, such as the ceiling corridor French skylight design.

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A pop of Taiwanese art finds itself on easels in enclaves and larger-than-life stones on grey wooden floors.

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Lush plant life and a teardrop mirror in the bathroom add a Scandinavian cabin feel that feels both global and particular. Full wooden floors, ceilings and walls give the experience of being in another world, while wide-paned windows let the outside world in.

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The block design carries through to the exterior, which is as strong by day as by night. Day shows distinct elements present inside, while night illuminates the block design. Extra partitions are made in steel against the concrete façade, mimicking the usage of different woods in a block pattern in the interior. A stone entrance marks a spot of difference.