A one bedroom apartment in a converted highrise became the site for two twisting interventions. One, a wall that defined the entrance and enclosed the kitchen, made a smooth and continuous transition from the intimate spaces of the apartment (bedroom and bathroom) to the main living space. Two, a perforated screen hung from the ceiling to create a domestic feel to the otherwise raw loft space. The wall was made from a CNC milled kit of parts that was the cheapest, quickest and most accurate part of the project, the surface is a combination of plywood and plasterboard finished in painted plaster. The shape of the wall is folded in profile at the entrance of the kitchen and becomes a straight vertical line at the entrance to the bathroom around the corner and past the entrance lobby. The journey of these folds negotiates a form that becomes twisted at the moment of arrival from the compressed space of the lobby to the large open space of the apartment. The drama of this moment is articulated by the complexity of the form and by the fold that disappears into the smooth twisting surface much like a pleat tightens the drape of a skirt. A second fold allows the eye to continue around the corner and becomes obscured as it takes the outside geometry of a shelving unit that carves into the wall promising to expose its ribbed structure.
This second fold finally disappears at the moment where the wall becomes completely vertical at the entrance to the bedroom and bathroom. The back surface of the shelves meets the twists of the wall but rolls away from the surface like lips, as this part of the wall defines the area of the apartment door directly opposite.
The screen is twisted with in two planes about 12 inches apart. The ceiling also makes the transition from a lower ceiling height at the entrance to the higher loft space of the living space. It also controls the reflection of the outside light from the windows along the south side of the apartment. The perforation of the screen manipulates the light emitted from the ceiling lights above the screen. These perforations change their density in relationship to the windows allowing more light from above as one moves further away from the windows. The size of the holes in the screen casts shadows of the pattern through the space and onto the floor, creating the effect of a dappled light made from highlights and low lights.
The flow of the shaped interventions and the light in the space tells a story of specific moments of intense action connected without knowable boundaries, by smooth, continuous and always changing surfaces.
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