Furnitecture: Bringing more Light to a Loft

Collaboration

During COVID, I collaborated with Hesselbrand to renovate my loft. Because the architect was based in London and Oslo, we used several techniques including 3D scans from Matterpot and Rhino models to communicate the design intent remotely. As part of the Hesselbrand team, I led the permitting and execution of this project. I also built a significant portion of the millwork myself.

All photos shot by Adam Rouse.

Context

The Clocktower Building, located in the South Beach neighbourhood of San Francisco, is one of the city’s iconic landmarks. Originally a factory and office, the building was converted into live-work lofts in the 1990s by the American architect David Baker. The transformation was ahead of its time, and the Clocktower Building stands as a pioneering example of live-work lofts in San Francisco, signifying a lifestyle that became synonymous with the start-up culture that would define the Bay Area in the years to come. Three decades on, amidst the backdrop of technological shifts and the Pandemic, Hesselbrand, was commissioned to offer a European perspective on the American loft in an attempt to rethink the balance between living and working, together and apart.

Challenges with a deep floor plan

Adaptive reuse, such as that of the Clocktower Building, comes with significant spatial possibilities and challenges. As industrial structures were typically designed with deep floor plans without the need for partitions. These spaces are striking and beautiful; however, in a domestic context, the depth poses a significant challenge when ensuring that natural light permeates throughout the space. The deeper a space is from the facade, the harder it is to get natural light and provide spaces of privacy.

Borrowing light from a public corrider

When the floor plan is subdivided into apartments, like The Clocktower Building’s layout, it introduces another dimension of challenge. Corridors are added to allow for accessibility but when positioned against one side of the facade, they obstruct natural light, exacerbating the dilemma and compromising the potential quality of the space. In this case, with only one large wall of south-facing windows, this became the biggest design challenge of the project. To address this issue, two large glass block walls were introduced to borrow light from the public corridor into the previously dark part of the unit, transforming the space and allowing for new spatial configurations that were previously not possible. This solution provided a dual effect: directly illuminating rooms and indirectly fostering a layered, multifaceted ambiance.

Furnitecture

Another pivotal design intervention was a large-scale piece of furniture added in the centre of the plan, challenging the traditional loft plan. Instead of pushing private spaces into the corners, the furniture divides the space up into five unique zones expressed through volume of space, material palette, light, and colour. The ground floor is clad in durable industrial surfaces like ceramic tiles and steel, while the first floor creates a more private space characterised by soft, warm, and intimate materials such as natural oak and carrara marble. This tactful design gradation ensures areas of varying intimacy and warmth.

Translucent materials

Glass block not only functions as a means to bring in light into the back of the unit. It is also used as a cohesive material to define the first floor bathroom. Three walls of the bathroom are comprised of glass block flooding the room with natural light at all times of the day. A shower room is also separated by glass block further creating a cohesive aesthetic experience.

Bringing spatial variety to a big box

In essence, the Clocktower’s design paints a picture of intertwined spaces, fostering both functional efficiency and privacy. It inspires spontaneous movement, achieving a harmonious balance between solitude and sociability without fragmenting the space and light. Whereas typical lofts often feel one-note, the renovation created the spatial variety and richness often found in a more traditional home.

All together the design generates a landscape of interlocking and nested spaces that provides practical functionality, privacy while also inviting constant and unprescribed movement throughout the home. Privacy and social life can exist and be mediated without compartmentalising the space and light.