Apartment · Dark Luxury / Raw Structural · Design study
Kileleshwa Night Apartment
Kileleshwa, Nairobi
- Area
- 1,485 sq ft
- 138 m²
- Ceiling height
- 2.75 m exposed beams
- Key materials
- Charcoal microcement, Walnut, Smoked glass
- Completion year
- 2026
- Design study
Act I
The brief & the constraint
A one-bedroom for evenings, with the structure left on show.
An investor converting a large one-bedroom flat for a long corporate let. The existing false ceiling hid three deep concrete downstand beams and made the rooms low and box-like.
The brief: a flat with character that a senior executive would choose over a hotel.
Three 450 mm downstand beams cross the living room at irregular spacing.
Act II
The framing decisions
Decision 01
Take the false ceiling out
Removing the false ceiling gains 250 mm between the beams. The beams are cleaned, left raw, and become the frame that divides living, dining and kitchen.
Section — bays between beams Decision 02
One function per bay
Each bay between beams gets one use and one light: a walnut dining table under the middle bay, a sofa under the next. The structure sets the furniture plan.
Plan — one function per bay Decision 03
Smoked glass to keep the dark light
The bedroom is separated by a smoked-glass screen, not a wall. At night it reads as a dark plane; in the morning it lets daylight through to the living room.
Bedroom with dark walls and soft light
Act III
The lived result
Orbit video: added at handover photography.
“The beams we were going to hide are the first thing every tenant asks about.”