Project Description
Commissioned by a Feng Shui practitioner for his industrial loft, this compact mobile dwelling cube allows the client to balance his personal and professional life in one space. The loft resident was facing a dilemma: his 1,100 square-foot live/work apartment felt vast when he was alone, yet he needed more space for his growing classes. Based on the principles of Yin (private and closed) and Yang (public and open), the essential personal activities of study, sleep, and meditation are distilled into a compact, eight-foot cube. The mobile unit enables the client to freely reconfigure the loft to suit his classes while securing his personal realm. High-capacity casters allow frequent reorientation towards auspicious directions based on the Chinese calendar. To meet the owner’s requests for transferring the cube to future locations and minimizing on-site fabrication, a steel frame and plywood components were prefabricated to fit through a standard 3-foot door. FSC Ash plywood panels were hand-selected for unique grain patterns that resemble Chinese ink landscapes. Soy-glued plywood finished with natural Shellac, enables the owner to inhabit the cube without off-gassing concerns. Balancing the client’s personal and professional life, the cube manifests the fundamental principle of Feng Shui: perpetual rebalancing of Yin and Yang.