Architecture, Interiors, Lighting Design and Project Management » Madeleine Taylor / MMTNYC
Builder » Decker Construction
NoHo / NYU, New York City
Inspired by the function and the aesthetic of Japanese tansu, this loft redesign in the NoHo / NYU area was devised to maintain as open a plan as possible while giving the owners a centralized 'box' to contain their storage and spatial needs alongside a desire to preserve the open feeling of the industrial space while creating private zones for working, sleeping and dressing. As the building was industrial in it’s early life, old sewing needles were found between the floor boards during demolition. Original flooring was kept to the degree possible.
The outer communal surfaces surrounding the box contain extensive compartments for storage: a lacquered bookshelf, a guest coat closet, a dry bar, illuminated china cabinets, locking lateral files and a thirty-inch deep closet for exercise equipment and luggage. The exterior surfaces of the box were sheathed in Shinnoki pre-finished wood veneer panels with LED lighting atop the entire perimeter to fully and evenly illuminate the ceiling.
The interior private spaces of the box include an office with a sliding pocket wall; a sleeping space with integral lighting, nightstands and a platform storage bed, and two walk-in closets with a large-scale mirrored pocket door that creates a dressing foyer when fully retracted. LED lighting was integrated within millwork cabinet storage throughout. Cabinet hardware in leather, neoprene and black iron references the specialized hardware ornamentation typically found on tansu.
