Primitive Poetry

urban loft style study

Shortly after returning from a small project in Provence, I began working on a weekend studio space.  The space was wonderfully isolated, alone on top of a great industrial building in an area of New York City by the river that at the time was very desolate.  The austerity of the rooftop space high above all other buildings, with only a blue sky view, was appealingly disorienting.  The studio was my way of transitioning from a very reduced life in France to New York City and the States.

Given a large single space with no power or plumbing, concrete floors, walls and ceilings and an expanse of primitive steel windows, I set about shaping areas for:  entry, living, working, dining, cooking, bathing and storage.

I built no walls, but instead determined all areas through installation of simple floating surfaces in both refined and industrial materials.  Large surfaces of industrial felt, molten glass, Belgian linen and lead-coated copper created distinct spaces for areas of life and work.  Materials for each area were chosen as much for their useful properties as for their intrinsic, aesthetic beauty.  Issues of solar transparency or translucency, acoustical opacity, impermeability or absorbency as well as warmth and how materials felt informed all elements of the design.    

These simple natural materials all fell within a tonal palate of ivory, amber, taupe and gray. The studio’s contents, both collected and designed, reflect an odd assemblage of everyday utilitarian items - 19th and 20th century primitive furniture and objects, as well as furniture that I designed for the space , such as the suite of minimalist tables and chairs of cold rolled steel.  The place was somewhat like camping indoors - everything was rigged up, from the zinc hot water barrel at the shower to the straw floors at the WC.  A friend affectionately referred to the style as “Swiss Family Robinson Industriale”.