MILNE / OJITO RESIDENCE -  NEW YORK, NY

Living With Art/The Art of Living

TYPOLOGY: Residential

SCOPE: Complete Interior Renovation

SIZE: 2000 Sq. Ft.

CLIENT: Anne Milne & Jacob Ojito

The clients wanted a minimal white space for their growing art collection of South American and Caribbean artwork. I-Beam combined home and gallery into a highly flexible display and storage system governed by proportional strategies employed in painting.

We collaborated with Joan Waltemath, a contemporary painter whose work is based on numerical ratios. She created a sculptural painting, that also serves as a hearth, light fixture, and a door between the public and private areas of the home.This multifunctional approach is typical of I-Beam’s work and became a means by which to negotiate between the artist’s two-dimensional rendering of space and the architect’s three-dimensional vision.

I-Beam used Joan’s matrix throughout to generate various programmatic interventions, including a guest bedroom, a home entertainment center, an office, an open dining area, storage and moving exhibition panels to accommodate an evolving art collection. A prime example of this may be seen in the temporary guest bedroom which appears by opening a sofa bed that in turn releases a cantilevered wall which swings out to privatize the bed area while projecting the invisible matrix into space. These dynamic features provide the clients with infinite but orderly spatial and curatorial possibilities in their own home.

PROJECT CREDITS:

Architect: I-Beam Design

Artist: Joan Waltemath in collaboration with Linnea Tillet, lighting designer and assistance from Andrew Tripp, software developer

Artwork Fabricator: Steve Sammuels at Work with Your Brain

Mechanical and Electrical Engineering: Fiskaa Engineering

Photos: Farzad Owrang

Video: Glenn Lazzaro