Calming Palette

Fascinated by music and space since he was a child, Taiwanese designer Jin Chen read interior design books in elementary school while his friends preferred comics. Chen's first project was Delicate Antique, an antique store in Taipei that he designed himself, and when others began to ask for his design help, Chen worked on a few commercial projects before finally establishing ecru Studio in 2018.

The year 2020 brought its own set of challenges for Chen, particularly the postponement of most projects. But the complicated context presented new opportunities: for one, an old friend tasked him with the interior design of her new house. ‘I thought it could be a good time to start on a residential project,' Chen says. ‘This friend, who lives with her mother and brother, has a highly developed sense of beauty and she trusted me completely to make most of the decisions.'

The 150-square-metre, three-bedroom apartment occupies the first floor and basement of a 40-yearold building on a mountain close to Taipei's Xinyi District. ‘From the beginning, we chose beige stucco paint as the main material and colour for the home, creating a minimal yet chic aesthetic,' Chen says. This tone, which helps to connect the flooring, walls and ceilings throughout the home, directly refers to the name of Chen's studio — ‘ecru' referring to the light fawn colour of unbleached linen. ‘It's a very neutral colour,' he says. ‘It's a bit primitive, dirty and imperfect. However, it contains great possibilities. This is the state I hope we can achieve in our design.' Inspired by designers and architects like Axel

Vervoordt, John Pawson, Vincent Van Duysen, Pierre Yovanovitch, Jean-Michel Frank and Jean Royère, Chen is fascinated by what is essential in a space, and this project embodies the same sense of purity, balance, proportion and timelessness evident in everything he does.

In this apartment, Chen and his fellow designers Wen-Yi Chang and Yi-Jiun Hung introduced organic built elements, such as the fireplace framed by cylinders, the funnel-like ceiling light and the grey travertine-clad kitchen island. Adding visual surprises to every corner, the furniture is a mix of periods and styles from vintage to modern and contemporary, with pieces by design masters like Børge Mogensen, Giancarlo Piretti, Pierre Chapo and Ingvar Hildingsson combining with objects produced in collaboration with local makers. ‘The Undercurrent Objects, a furniture production studio in Tainan, helped us create a pair of plaster wall lamps and the hand-folded aluminium artwork over the fireplace,' Chen says. ‘We also worked with Taipei-based handmade furniture brand Liipo Studio to produce the solid wood coffee table in the living room, and the paintings around the home were done by the Delicate Antique team.'

The peaceful atmosphere is a curated ode to minimal decor. ‘It's our first residential project and I think it's a good start,' Chen says. ‘It gave us the opportunity to try some material and colour combinations for the first time. As for the other projects we're currently working on, those will be a completely different story.'