A married couple bought a town house in Brooklyn, New York, in which they wanted to create space for their own private and working life. She – an artist and poet, and he – a professor and poet. However, they had two special requests…
The first was the creation of a special living space for their two bashful but curious cats, so that they could freely move through small and high places and elude unexpected guests. The second was the desire to display their vast collection of artistic works and books in a visible and interesting way.
Airy and Playful
The couple turned with their requests to experts from the renowned architectural studio BFDO Architects plc., who designed the ground floor as an open multifunctional living space. It includes a living area, media space and a dining area with a kitchen behind a functional wall in the middle third of the space. This wall divides the corridor with the entrances to the drying room and the basement. On the other side it defines the space for sitting in the media room and provides a place for hiding the air-conditioning. The two-storey glass wall in the kitchen, in the back part of the house floods the interior with light.
The wall on one side is flanked along the whole length of the living space with a built-in shelf assembly for books and various small items. Over it is a moulding for the cats, which can comfortably observe the events in the household from a height. Doors are built in at both ends of the resourceful path through which the household favourites can freely pass into the other rooms of the house.
At Rest and at Work
Upstairs, in addition to the bedrooms is a workroom taking up the entire back half of the space. A nest created in the corner of the room serves the poet for meeting with her muses. The small balcony with two chairs again for a refreshing pause.
Several of the materials which the designer used in the home were recycled – for example the wooden doors, shelves in the walls and the pinewood floors. The playful colours on the stairway bannisters and the entrance doors emphasize the carved details and silhouette of the wood.
Text: AGCAN, d, photo: Francis Dzikowski/OTTO
