107 Loft

Project Details

Project Description

This project was selected as an Honor winner in the 2024 Residential Architect Design Awards, Custom Home / 3,000 Square Feet or Less category.

“I was intrigued because it was an interiors project—and a lot of the other interiors projects were very decorative in nature, and this was the complete opposite. The wood finish on the angular wall that supports the loft was just enough to make it interesting.” —Juror Rene Gonzalez

The clients for this project, both artists, create works that possess an angular, edgy quality about them as they paint exclusively with palette knives and focus on urban realism. It’s this aspect, along with their matter-of-fact personalities and a tight budget, that heavily inspired this live-work loft renovation in Vancouver. For instance, instead of ripping out and replacing the loft’s awkward angular mezzanine, the architects left it in place and inserted a cost-effective gypsum-board pony wall here to conceal all the private zones—bedroom, bath, mechanical room, walk-in closet, and home library—from below. Visitors to the public front-facing studio are thus unaware that the loft doubles as the artists’ home.

The architects continued accentuating angles throughout the main studio space as well: A modernized bezel-like crown molding creates visual separation and transition between the exposed ceiling’s insulation, ducts, and pipes from smooth new art walls while an angled plywood structure with myriad cabinets for art supplies screens off a separate flex room and bathroom. A very simple and clean open kitchen features more of the plywood, along with neutral-toned laminated millwork and an island furnished with white counter stools.

PROJECT CREDITS:
Project Name: 107 Loft
Architect: D’Arcy Jones Architects
Location: Vancouver, BC

Photo Credit: Sama Jim Canzian