Luce
et Studio designed a 2,500 sf live/work space for a Chicago-based speech
writer and a California
banking executive. The clients’ wish was to continue an urban lifestyle within
the context of a “sub–urban” Southern California
neighborhood.
The loft design contrasts large-scale
volumes with intimate studies of body movement and sensuality. Architectural
details provide physical intimacy in each space, and contrasting materials in
juxtaposition invoke the urge for experience through touch. Detail and
rendering of a sculptural staircase draws the body’s climb and descent,
choreographically, through space.
Where the body is most vulnerable, in
bathing areas, the studio focused mostly closely on detail. Relationships
between body and ritual are intensified; one bathroom space uses voyeuristic
aspects of transparency; the other internalizes the act of cleansing into a
secret box where metal touches skin.
The American Institute of Architects, San Diego, gave the
Felkner/Lehman Loft design the prestigious Honor Award in 1999.
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