studio apartment case study pdf

Case Study: West Chelsea Residence by Luce et Studio

Architecture is an art for Jennifer Luce, FAIA, one she embraces with a sculptor’s sensuality and an engineer’s precision. Every important decision she and her team at LUCE et studio make on a project goes through a meticulous and probing process of research and development, often resulting in ordinary objects transcending their bounds. For instance, a bathroom sink carved out of a single piece of stone becomes an undulating vessel, and that vessel is the fulcrum for an entire architectural solution. The problem? How do you design an apartment that was originally meant for Zaha Hadid in a building she also designed?  

  Jennifer’s clients, a West Coast couple she’s known for some time, had searched extensively for an upgrade to their pied-à-terre in New York City when they stopped by the sales office of this new building on the High Line. With Zaha’s untimely death, the unit had been released and Jennifer’s clients snapped it up. They called Jennifer right from the sales office with the news and the go-ahead on the project, which eventually tapped artisans on both coasts and a number of stops in between.  

The 2,500 square foot unit is located on the quiet side of the West Chelsea building, away from the bustle of the High Line but with access to long-range views. “This unit was high enough and outward enough, it likely had some merit to Zaha,” says Jennifer, speculating about why she might have chosen it. “It feels more private than the wing that reaches toward the High Line.” Although it was earmarked as the famous architect’s apartment, it was a complete blank slate when Jennifer got the keys. All of the other units in the 11-story building were under construction with the developer’s stock interiors, but this one had just a few walls in place—albeit in the wrong places.  

With a tabula rasa on the inside, but Zaha’s undulating façade of stone, steel, and glass on the exterior, Jennifer found a perfect balance of inspiration and creative freedom. “We wanted to make something wonderful for our clients. And, as much as it’s our project and not something she would have designed, we felt a need to honor Zaha,” she says.

The Canadian-born architect whose practice is now based in La Jolla has some personal insight and affinity for the British-Iraqi architect. “I met her when I started working with Arquitectonica. She came to give a lecture in Miami, and I was assigned to her at someone’s very elaborate house. I was intensely shy, and it was amazing to meet her,” she recalls. “Later, I invited her to come to Canada to teach and speak there, and we ended up driving for hours through a snowstorm to the airport in Montreal. We were in touch off and on through the years. She was unbelievably charming and empathetic and generous.”  

The Art of Making Art

If Zaha practiced art as a way to unlock a more expressive architecture, Jennifer practices architecture as a way to unlock artistic expression in service to her clients. LUCE et studio’s diverse work encompasses corporate headquarters, restaurants, commercial interiors, museums and galleries, custom residences, and much more. Each project taps what’s defining about the client and delivers an original, bespoke solution to their needs and desires.

Often that solution combines fine craft with a taut industrial edge, as it does in the West Chelsea Residence. For these particular clients, that combination was especially perfect. “They are art collectors and patrons, but they built an amazing business together around precision. In the days before FedEx, they were shipping and delivering industrial products within 24 hours. One of their goals was to not keep their clients on the phone for more than 60 seconds,” she says. “So everything we designed, we did to please their propensity for precision.” And she knew SilverLining, Inc., was the perfect builder for the project, she says, “when I first met the site super in the space and he was projecting to the ¹⁄16 th -inch reveal.”  

The owners, who also have a stunning architect-designed oasis in Del Mar, California, didn’t need a vast footprint in New York, but they did want some of that open, oasis feel in the smaller place. Their primary requirement was for a sanctuary from the city’s overstimulation, but with the flexibility to host larger gatherings of other art lovers. To that end, Jennifer and her team removed the misplaced walls installed by the developer. “Coming from California, it was so important for everyone to feel connected to the landscape,” says the architect. “Our first goal was to break down those barriers—to break through north to south and east to west—to light the space. There was something very soothing to that.”

Having eliminated the last vestige of existing conditions, the team set about reinstalling walls—this time with materials sourced from California. “We called Michael D’Angelo, a woodworker I’ve collaborated with for 35 years,” she says. “He took one oak tree and sliced it himself—one tree—and made the floors and wall panels himself.” The wood was then shipped to a cabinetmaker in New York who collaborated with him on the install. “Every board is precisely located and brought together with the butterfly joints.”  

On the floor, the planks are joined at an angle, something SilverLining—despite all the company’s high-end custom experience—had never done before. “The way those angles are cut on the floor is very unusual for us,” recalls Joel Arencibia, director of operations and partner. “It creates a miter detail that’s unusual for New York, with the planks joined on triangles.” Adding to the challenge, the wood was delayed arriving from the West Coast. “Our biggest challenge overall was scheduling and coordinating all the contributors. At the time, the rest of the building interiors were also under construction, so access to the elevator was another complication.”

The wood wraps the doors and walls (some are moveable), transforming the space into a warm embrace. Handmade hardware from architect-led artisans in New York injects a cool gleam against the wood surfaces and then embeds—chameleon-like—in steel accent walls and doors. The gleam remains, however, because the hardware is polished and reflective and the metal surfaces are patinaed and variegated.  

The use of steel throughout the apartment is a major hat tip to Zaha’s façade, while at the same time aligning with the LUCE et studio aesthetic. “We were very much influenced by the building itself and the craft of the metal,” says Jennifer. “Our work is rooted in the industrial. We have a passion for metal, and on this project, we go on a journey of examining that material, celebrating the curves and the arches, and the sinuous 3D aspect of the building itself. Metal is incredibly sensual as a material. The apartment is basically wood, metal, and stone and that’s it.”

The steel carries through to the interior window detailing, tracing the curves of Zaha’s dynamic exterior fenestration. “The exterior of the building was all custom metalwork—all stainless steel,” recalls SilverLining’s president, Josh Weiner. “But the interiors were not detailed that way, so we installed the custom metal around the curves to match.”

The custom metalwork is not the only element that curves. In collaboration with Quarra, a stone fabricator in Madison, Wisconsin, LUCE et studio designed bathroom sinks and a showcase tub for the primary bath carved out of solid pieces of Italian stone. The wave-like undulations in the stone cavities evoke the façade, swirling gracefully in a slow vortex.  

“There was so much blood, sweat, and tears in that tub,” Jennifer recalls. “I had a conversation about the design with my client while sitting in a bathtub. It’s like product research; we have to confirm all those details before the cutting begins. We had to find a block of stone and make sure we could get it in the elevator. Then the process of cutting it took two weeks. Ultimately, we had to shorten it by 2 feet to get it into the apartment.”

The tub was a great effort on everyone’s part for sure, but this is one of the aspects of design Jennifer loves best. Collaborating with artisans on custom solutions informs her work at every scale. “We’re working with Quarra on a piece for the museum [the Mingei International Museum in San Diego debuting this summer]. They’re making a 45-foot-long bench for us,” she notes. “It’s a nice evolution that satisfies me as a maker.”

The West Chelsea Residence is, indeed, an uncanny fulcrum for connections. There was the Zaha/Jennifer connection, of course, and now the apartment owners have made a substantial donation to Jennifer’s museum project. Meanwhile, the owners’ art collection infuses their New York apartment with their own highly curated choices, with the inspired exception of one piece sourced by Jennifer. It’s an installation that brilliantly distills the crossover between art and architecture: A large, translucent glass screen by German photographer Veronika Kellndorfer of Lina Bo Bardi’s Brazilian modern house.  

“We placed it at the apex of the space, where morning light from the east, afternoon light from the west, and all-day light from the south coalesce,” says Jennifer. “We commissioned the piece from the photographer and licensed Lina Bo Bardi’s design for the concrete-and-wood stands that hold it.” Precisely situated, it serves as the suggestion of a partition wall between the kitchen and the living area, defining the space while leaving it open.

In the sculpture as in the apartment, art merges with architecture and resonates with the story of women architects’ uniquely collaborative contributions to both disciplines.

Plans and Drawings

Project Credits

West Chelsea Residence

New York, New York

ARCHITECTS: Jennifer Luce, FAIA, LUCE et studio architects, La Jolla, California

BASE BUIlDING ARCHITECT: Aditya Karmarkar, AIA, Ismael Leyva Architects, New York, New York

BUILDER: Josh Weiner, president, and Joel Arencibia, director of operations and partner, SilverLining, Inc., New York

Project Size: 2,500 square feet

Construction Cost: Withheld

Photography: Michael Moran Photography, Inc.  

Key Products

COOKTOP/OVENS/REFRIGERATOR/FREEZER/WINE UNIT: Gaggenau

DISHWASHER/WASHER/DRYER: Miele

DISPOSAL: InSinkErator

DOORS/MILLWORK/MOLDING/TRIM: Cousin Furniture; Argent Fabrication; Quarra Stone

DOOR HARDWARE: Custom by H. Theophile

FAUCETS: GESSI for Valcucine (kitchen); Vola (bathrooms); Dornbracht (shower)

KITCHEN CABINET SYSTEM: Valcucine

LIGHTING: Kreon

LIGHTING CONTROL: Lutron

MIRRORS: Agape

PAINTS: Dunn-Edwards

RADIATORS: Vulcan

SINKS: Custom by Quarra Stone; Blanco (kitchen)

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Case Study Residence / Arkifex Studios

• Curated by Paula Pintos
• Architects: Arkifex Studios
• Area Area of this architecture project Area:  6200 ft²
• Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2017
• Photographs Photographs: Aaron Kimberlin
• Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:   Lutron , Miele , AutoCAD , Bulthaup , Dorken Delta , HE Williams , Lumen Pulse , Manko Window Systems , Mitsubishi Electric , Trimble Navigation , Unreal Engine
• Lead Architects: Michael Hampton
• Landscape : Grant Williams
• Design Team:  Arkifex Studios
• Clients:  Anonymous Architects
• Engineering Mep:  Interpres Building Solutions/ Structural: J&M Engineering
• City:  Springfield
• Country:  United States
• Did you collaborate on this project?

Text description provided by the architects. A case study on Ozark Modernism. The Case Study Residence harkens back to the post-WWII Case Study Houses project sponsored by Arts and Architecture magazine. Just as the original project was experimentation in modern American residential architecture, the Case Study Residence seeks to define and embody “Ozark Modernism” is an example of single-family residential architecture. For the firm, Case Study Residence is an opportunity to test a hypothesis, develop a specific regional vocabulary within our practice, and to reaffirm our mission statement.

Principal features of the project include: • biophilic design • context sensitive design • an underlying geometric formal logic

• Miesian horizontal symmetry • an emphasis on the haptic modality and visceral experience • a simplified and naturalistic materiality

• passive solar considerations to siting • minimal removal of trees on site • Use of reclaimed walnut, sustainably harvested siding, and locally quarried stone • consideration of archaeoastronomy in the design

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Studios 18 by Sanjay Puri Architects: The Organic Layout

Studios 18, are eighteen residential apartments located on an undulating site in the deserts of Ras, Rajasthan , India. These apartments are spread out, over an area of 36 acres. The layout is influenced by the organic structure of the neighbouring villages with interspersed residential units, connected with streets, branched out from the main road, leading towards the parking lot, in the site. The residents, here are the workers of the cement manufacturing plant which is situated, within the vicinity of the site.

The layout of these 3-levelled residential apartments represents the organic nature of ancient Indian cities that pushes the residences back, connecting them with adjoining corridors throughout. The 4m contour level difference is handled to maximum benefit with a gradual step down in building levels with the contours. 

The architect has been empathetic towards the hot arid climate prevailing throughout the location with temperatures rising over 35°C during the 8-months of summer. Hence, keeping the orientation of low-rise apartments, either towards the north or the northeast or the northwest with none facing the south.

The interconnected circulation spaces are naturally ventilated with an abstract composition of square punctures within walls on either side, facilitating air movement . The direct heat of the Sun is obstructed, allowing natural daylight within the linear corridors through these square openings creating interesting patterns during different times of the day. 

The linear corridors create an engaging experience by interconnecting the apartments and providing a well-ventilated, covered walkway giving the residents a peek at the surrounding landscaped spaces on the site. Even the apartments are cross-ventilated by deeply recessed windows and open to sky terraces.

Colour plays a crucial role in the design. The inspiration for colour-coding different volumes of spaces, in the design, is taken from the State where the site is, i.e., Rajasthan.

Rajasthan is one of the most colourful states in India. Not only do the natives wear bright coloured attires with shining jewellery, but also the cities are colour-coded. Udaipur is known as The White City, as it is home to innumerable lakes and structures with marble architecture. Jodhpur is known as the blue city, as the homes of natives are in hues of blue lime plaster. Jaipur, known as the pink city, as the buildings here, are painted with terracotta pink; and Jaisalmer is known as the golden city, due to the houses built in yellow sandstone and also because of the Thar desert, which appears in the hues of gold, brown and yellow.

Colours, used in the design, add merit to the visual impact. The deconstructed cubes sport varied hues of the sandy region, at different times of the day – visually differentiating the stepped, recessed volumes, as well as identifying circulation spaces. With lighter hues on external walls to reflect heat off the surfaces and darker tones indoors to create a cooling feel, they add impact to the highly ‘responsive’ design solution.

Studios 18 is a contextually designed housing project that is sustainable by its design, complies with the site contours, and orients in a way, to reduce heat gain, facilitating natural light and ventilation .

An artist by passion and an architect by profession, Prabhasmi Chukkala believes that architecture is not only the thing of the past but proves its significance in the present scenarios. Her approach to design is through art and feels that architecture exercises it uniquely.

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This opulent Mumbai apartment is a case study in functional design

Showcasing exemplary modular contemporary design, DIG Architects transformed a run-down 530-square-feet Mumbai apartment into a luminous luxury suite. Copper Cube Haus, which is located in an unlikely old building in the bylanes of Andheri, is a case study in creative problem solving, and an example of how good design is always ripe for the challenge. “The brief was pretty out of the box,” admits DIG Architects co-founder, Amit Khanolkar. The client is originally from Goa, but travels frequently, and has to transit through Mumbai very often. “He got tired of staying in hotels each time, and decided to get something of his own.” He acquired a small apartment in a nondescript building close to the airport, and was looking to convert it into a secondary transit home. “His idea was to create a kind of studio or lounge, where he could even conduct meetings from home,” says Khanolkar. The challenge, however, lay in making the most of the cramped, poorly-designed floor plan. “The apartment itself was a 1BHK, with a very linear layout,” explains Khanolkar. “The challenge was to open up the entire space, while making a bold statement at the same time.” Copper is the basis of the design palette, which is otherwise a wash of black and vitrified cementitious tiling. The copper cube, from which the project gets its name, is a copper sheet-clad kitchen unit that systematically partitions the living space and master bedroom. “We wanted to be somewhere in the vicinity of contemporary, dark, and a little industrial,” says Khanolkar. “The copper gets its importance because most of the materials around it are very muted.”

Copper is the basis of the design palette

In that vein, all architectural lighting was kept under 3000K colour temperature, which is yellow or golden, to give the copper its due. The result is a home that has the ambience of a plush hotel suite. “We try to be consistent in our design,” explains Khanolkar, “We know that with one or two materials, you can make a strong statement. It’s about designing responsibly.”

Living Room

The living room is furnished sparingly with a TV console, a sofa and a side table. In the centre, a table and arrangement of chairs doubles as a dining table or work-from-home table. A movable fabric screen, framed in aluminium, slides across the window—it functions as a curtain while allowing the overall volume of the space to appear seamless. A custom rug from Weavers Knot underlines the space, while a pendant light completes the arrangement. A large artwork, customised to compliment the volum etric theme of the house, provides a soft backdrop to the scene.

The focal point of the house is the kitchen, from which the project gets its name. The eponymous “copper cube” is a modular kitchen unit clad in copper sheets. The cube appears to be detached from the ceiling, thereby raising the visual height of the space and also making room for a ceiling-mounted air conditioner. All cabinets and shelves within the unit are also clad in copper sheets, and a copper inlay extends along the floor, thereby defining the cubic structure within the visual space. The front portion of the kitchen, which shares space with the living room, has been fitted with bar stools to provide additional seating. A slit in the middle offers visual connectivity between the kitchen and living room, making the unit appear more spacious. The walls around the cube are clad in black tiles that extend all the way to the master bedroom at the far end of the house. The top of the kitchen unit is wrapped in Barrisol, a fabric that distributes the light evenly across the copper surfaces. “It completely washes the copper and makes it more opulent,” explains Khanolkar, “The mood of the space is quite dark, so by using this Barrisol, we’re highlighting the primary theme, which is the copper cube.”

Master Bedroom

A sliding door, cleverly concealed within the kitchen cube, can be pulled forward to create a private master bedroom that includes the master bath. “The doors don’t take up circulation space,” explains Khanolkar, “They disappear into the walls, so there is no visual interruption.” The master bedroom appears almost like a framed tableau, a birch ply-clad cube that is set within a thick wrap clad in black. The wrap makes room for concealed storage, both around and within the cube of the master bedroom. A full length mirror, a ceiling-height shelving unit and drawers within the base plinth make up what will function as the dressing area. The birch ply cube is the sleeping unit, fitted with a modular bed and a built-in side table, the base of which can be opened for additional storage. As in the living room, the only window in the master bedroom can be accessed by sliding back a framed work of wall art. The TV wall opposite the master bed is a fluted surface that also opens out to reveal additional storage compartments. “Smaller houses require this kind of utility,” insists Khanolkar, “and every square inch of the space that is available for storage and utility has to be made use of.”

The master bedroom appears almost like a framed tableau

The birch ply cube is the sleeping unit, fitted with a modular bed  

The theme of black is fully realised in the master bathroom, which is entirely clad in a mosaic of black ceramic tiles. White grouting offers a stern contrast, and gives the space “a digital look,” as Khanolkar describes it. “We were very minimalistic in our design for this space,” he adds, “The mosaic itself, which is busy, does the job.” Black granite shelves and a black ceramic basin enhance the palette. Copper accents appear as towel rods and racks, and the countertop which is entirely clad in copper sheets.

The theme of black is fully realised in the master bathroom

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Third Avenue Apartments: A case study of permanent supportive housing

A case study of the Third Avenue Apartments, a permanent supportive housing project by Services for the Underserved in New York City. This case study is a part of a collection of reports, databases and design strategies for Design Resources for Homelessness, a free online knowledge source for designing housing and facilities for persons experiencing homelessness.

Related Papers

A case study of the New Genesis Apartments, a permanent supportive housing development by Skid Row Housing Trust in Los Angeles. This case study is a part of a collection of reports, databases and design strategies for Design Resources for Homelessness, a free online knowledge source for designing housing and facilities for persons experiencing homelessness.

Mazlin Ghazali

Tulu Toros, PhD

In Chicago, the historic courtyard buildings dating back to the time period roughly from the Columbian Exposition to the Great Depression display distinctly identifiable characteristics in terms of planning, design and construction dictated largely by regulations as well as market conditions. Of all different types of multi-unit housing buildings, Courtyard Type presents extremely favorable options for creating a high density, socially integrated and economically stable housing alternatives. Even though many massing and configuration features of the courtyard apartment buildings of this particular time period were prescribed in great detail through regulations, still, a wide array of type variations were allowed and hence developed.

Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism

Donia Zhang

Cultural vitality as the fourth pillar of sustainable development has been widely acknowledged, and vernacular architecture as a major part of a nation’s material culture has entered the cultural sustainability dialogue. This recognition demands that new housing design and development should honor a local or regional identity. This in-depth case study assesses the architectural, environmental, spatial, constructional, social, cultural, and behavioral aspects of the Jiaanbieyuan (“Excellent Peace Courtyard-Garden Housing Estate”) built in Suzhou, China, in 1998. The 500-unit Jiaanbieyuan is located close to two UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites, the Canglang (“Surging Waves”) Pavilion and the Master-of-Nets Garden. It has attempted to recreate Suzhou’s traditional architecture and landscape architecture. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through numerous research methods, including onsite surveys and interviews. The findings show the new housing forms do not promote social relations as effectively as the traditional housing of the past. Moreover, the communal Central Garden has functioned to some extent as a social and cultural activity space. The study further proposes a new courtyard-garden housing system that facilitates social interaction and cultural activities.

Karen Kubey

In affordable housing circles, architects increasingly promote “outcomes-based” or “impact” design, frameworks that judge architecture by its social, economic, environmental, and health impacts. Housing for people with low incomes is expected to meet wide-ranging high-performance standards, in part to justify public and philanthropic subsidies. In contrast to social-justice- and funding-minded conversations around below-market housing, press surrounding Via 57 West, the new luxury housing development by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen—like many reviews of high-end architecture—has focused on the building’s form and finishes, characterizing Via as a “modern icon … with Cesarstone countertops.” What if we judged luxury projects like Via 57 West by the demanding criteria placed on below-market housing?

Urban Design International

The aim of this study is to evaluate the physical form of the phase one new courtyard housing prototype in Juer Hutong (‘Chrysanthemum Lane’) of Beijing, and propose further design development for the new courtyard type. In doing so, Heliodon experiments were carried out, using architectural simulation models, to test sunlight penetration during different times of the day and different times of the year, to find the optimum courtyard proportion of plan form and building height. Furthermore, two architectural models of different courtyard sizes were created and studied, to compare their density value and plot ratio. Comparative studies were also made of four different housing types built in Beijing since 1949. The results show that the new courtyard housing type not only achieves high density, but also provides more meaningful residential lifestyle when looked at from social, cultural, architectural, environmental, and historical perspectives.

Deborah Dash Moore

McGill University

In the mid-1990s, Korean home owners began to organize Jaegaebaljohap (regional redevelopment unions), controlled by large developers whose goal is to maximize profit, to improve their living condition. As a result, the area of redevelopment filled with high-rise luxury condominium housing. Jaegaebaljohap provides a ‘right of purchase,’ representing the market value of the existing homes that can be used for buying new homes, to the residents. Even if people have the ‘right of purchase’, they often are not wealthy enough to pay the additional cost for the new homes. As a result, they have to be displaced in which they have resided for decades. The objective of this research is to explore applicable affordable housing design strategies for Seoul that will enable them to sustain the lives of their inhabitants without displacement. An overview of Korean urban context and the housing problems regarding displacement are discussed first. Then theoretical framework and types of affordable housing design methodologies are examined, and based on the literature review, feasible affordable housing design methodologies are selected for the urban context of Seoul. Lastly, from an analysis of the case studies, viable architectural approaches for affordable housing design strategies are suggested. The affordable housing design strategies for Seoul, examined in this research consider high density multi-family housing types with mixed-use of development and related urban design strategies. The findings show that there are feasible affordable housing design strategies including green-sustainable design that do not require displacement and compromising livability through cost reduction housing design methodologies applicable to Seoul.

Gregory Haley

Sustainability

Steffen Lehmann

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Ruetemple creates small spartan apartment in Moscow

Space-saving oak furniture and white-washed walls feature in this minimalist apartment in Moscow renovated by architecture studio  Ruetemple .

The small 40 square-metre apartment is owned by a young IT designer who wanted a clutter-free open-plan interior without any unnecessary decoration or detailing.

"He wanted to see all the functions of the apartment – kitchen, living room, bedroom, workplace – in one open space, but with the right zoning," said the Russian architecture studio.

"Creating the interior, we focused primarily on the organisation of space; its ergonomics."

Instead of using walls to break up the open-plan space, the architects created defined zones using material finishes and floor levels.

The design revolves around several pieces of plain and simple built-in furniture made from solid oak. These include a tabletop that sits between the kitchen and bedroom that functions as a dining table kitchen work top and desk all in one.

The bed is built into a raised platform and is hidden from view by a grid of shelving. A series of drawers for storing sports equipment sit underneath the platform.

Natural light enters the apartment from windows in the kitchen and bedroom areas.

A large oak storage wall that conceals the bathroom stretches from the entrance of the apartment and wraps around into the kitchen. This wall contains hidden storage cupboards as well as a grid of open shelving arranged horizontally diagonally.

Opposite the oak storage wall, the architects have inserted another wall of storage in a contrasting white finish that incorporates a built-in wardrobe and a dressing room.

In a break from the oak and white-washed surfaces, a grey rendered plastered wall lines one side of the open plan space, spanning the bedroom and living room areas.

In the bathroom, the architects used utilitarian white tiles and grey stone.

In 2014 Slovenian firm Studio 360 built walls of modular white shelving inside every room of this L-shaped apartment in Ljubljana to maximise space whilst removing clutter. Similarly, French studio CUT Architectures used a steel grid structure to create shelving, seating areas, a kitchen and a climbing frame for this apartment renovation in Paris' 6th arrondissement .

Photography is by Alexander Kudimov.

• Small apartments
• Space-saving furniture
• Residential architecture and interiors
• Residential

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