THE NELSON — APARTMENT, HANOI, 2024

Hanoi's architecture has always been more restrained than its southern counterpart — a city that favours depth over spectacle, craft over display. The Nelson 2X06 Apartment, designed and executed by W2D Studio in the historic Láng Hạ district, embodies this sensibility completely. At 106 sqm, the space had to work hard: delivering generous proportions through material intelligence rather than square footage. The brief called for surfaces that could hold the complexity of a complete domestic life while maintaining absolute visual coherence.

THE VISION

W2D Studio approached the Nelson apartment as a study in controlled restraint. The design team sought to create a sequence of spaces that felt simultaneously curated and liveable — spaces where materials did the speaking rather than decoration. The challenge of a medium-format apartment in a northern Vietnamese city demanded a palette that could expand the perception of space while grounding it in warmth and tactility.

THE MATERIALS

NOVACOLOR WALL2FLOOR forms the continuous ground of the project — flowing across floors and feature walls without joint or interruption, creating the visual expansion the space required. In the bathroom and master suite, NOVACOLOR ARCHI+ TADELAKT introduces its characteristic softness: a lime-based system with ancient North African roots, reinterpreted through Italian industrial precision, delivering surfaces that absorb and reflect light with an almost organic quality. Both systems were supplied and technically supported by NORA DESIGN ITALIANO, ensuring that the Hanoi installation met the same exacting standard as any European project.

THE RESULT

The completed apartment is a quiet achievement. The material continuity created by WALL2FLOOR dissolves the conventional borders between architectural elements, allowing the 106 sqm to breathe beyond their physical limits. The tadelakt bathroom is a moment of particular quality — a room that feels carved rather than built, where the material's slight imperfection is its greatest virtue. W2D Studio delivered a space that will grow more beautiful with time.

To explore how NOVACOLOR systems can transform your next Hanoi or HCMC project, contact us at designmaterials@noradesignitaliano.com.