The project is a renovation of a 1400 square foot apartment in a new building for a single mother with four children. With the help of furniture from Clei, an innovative Italian manufacturer, the architectural design not only accommodated every family member with a unique sleeping and working solution, but also with ample entertainment, dining, bath, and guest space. The core concept of the design was to create a well designed and distinctly different day- and night-time scenario.
The apartment is composed of three 12 foot wide "bays," each bay defined by a large floor-to-ceiling curtain wall of operable glass windows flooding natural light into the space. The first bay comprises the master bedroom (which converts to an office by day) and a bathroom, the second bay contains the kids' bedroom (with a total of four beds and three desks), a bathroom, and an entry foyer with closet space, and the third bay incorporates the living, dining, and kitchen areas.
The master bedroom features a queen-size folding and pivoting bed integrated with shelving, a storage wall with back-lit translucent closet doors, and a "floating" blue glass desk. The kids' bedroom houses a stylistically-unique bed for each child ranging from beds which convert to desks to simple pull-down wall beds to folding and pivoting beds. The bedroom areas are distinguished by a delightfully controlled explosion of color in the furniture finish, fabric, and paint choices. The living area, containing an innovative convertible sofa-bed and additional desk/bed for guests and sleepovers, and dining area, with an elegant, dark oak top and polished aluminum leg dining table, are unified by a graceful ceiling-hung swinging light fixture and by a series of dark oak and frosted, reflective glass wall storage units connected by a continuous and integrated anodized aluminum up-light valance and rail with a rolling library ladder. All furniture units in all areas are topped with integral, dimmable architectural up-lighting for ambient light and custom-fitted with sleek, minimal, and movable task lights. An accent wall of rose madder red adds counterpoint to the modern stainless steel and black cabinet kitchen. As each square foot of the apartment is dynamic, mutable, and functional, this tightly-run ship of an apartment is capped with details of polished stainless steel nautical hardware and a hammock.