The owner of this one-bedroom flat in Chelsea, New York City, had a very specific brief for the design. Its location, in a landmark Art Deco building, inspired the design, which rephrases the visual language of the Art Deco era into a contemporary interplay of art and design.
Private residence – Chelsea, NYC, USA
Design: Ghiora Aharoni Design Studio, New York
Photographer: Aviad Bar-Ness
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Oak Classic
Thickness: 30 mm. Width: Curated Widths 400, 450, 500 mm. Length: 2–5 m.
Finish: White Oil
A ‘residence as a work of art’ was the client’s brief to Ghiora Aharoni Design Studio; a perfect assignment for the multidisciplinary studio whose practice incorporates both art and design.
The flat’s multi-room floor plan was transformed by removing all interior walls to create an open-plan layout. Ghiora Aharoni’s inspiration for the design was the expressive compositions by artists Rothko and Sugimoto, as well as the visual vocabulary of the building’s Art Deco architecture. The removal of the partition walls resulted in a single, open space, where horizontal planes in silver leaf and oak separate the upper and lower halves of the flat in a flowing horizon line, evoking the earth and the sky, and infusing the flat with a shimmering, diffuse light.
Ghiora Aharoni erased right angles in the flat, replacing them with organic, curving forms that create a fluid atmosphere of space and light, with the custom-made built-in and architectural elements also articulated in curved design expressions.
This focused fusion of concept and form, as well as textures and materials, resonates in the discourse between the earthly anchor of the oak and the aura of the silver sky, which expands the perception of spatial and temporal boundaries.
For the floors, Ghiora Aharoni used Dinesen Oak Classic, whose calm, muted grain and minimal occurrence of knots create a homogenous surface that compliments the design vision in an interplay with the walls and sculptural wooden elements.
Designer furniture echoes the subtle interaction of sensuous silhouettes, with a single series of geometric artworks providing a visual counterpoint to the smooth, fluid architectural materials and rounded forms.