Carved Duplex / SPACECUTTER

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Text description provided by the architects. Inserted into and on top of an 1800s tenement in Brooklyn, the Carved Duplex is the home of an architect and his wife. Since purchasing the building, the couple had been living in one of the slender 500 SF railroad apartments on the third floor. The renovation’s ambition was to create a large experimental space behind the old building’s facade, strategically pairing a rich material experience with white and black surfaces. The project was guided by the experience of the human body being in close proximity to large monolithic forms. Monumental shapes, in various material forms, are carved into and from the space, revealing creative room transitions, innovative furniture concepts, and surprising details. Surface materials actively move through the space. Grey wood floors travel onto walls to lead inhabitants up stairs or down hallways. Walls are selectively carved away forcing reflection on historic relics such as twin fireplaces. The resulting space is a minimalist tour de force of controlled lines, large volumetric forms, and authentic materials. The plan called for the combination of two railroad apartments on the third floor and the construction of a rooftop addition, but adding height to the 150 year-old+ brick tenement presented structural challenges. The demolition of the third floor apartments revealed crumbling exterior walls and bricks that could be removed by hand. Ultimately, the upper six feet of the building's masonry walls were completely rebuilt with new steel joists replacing the original wood joists. In addition, a steel beam running the full length of the building was added, and columns were dropped through the building’s center all the way to the cellar floor. The original wood cornice on the building face was also removed and restored.