#Corktown
White Loft
True to its name, White Loft invokes a hyper-contemporary “blank canvas” backdrop to create an elegant, deeply customized live-work space, defined by art, colour, and vintage design objects.
Project Description
Equal parts residence, workplace, and gallery space, White Loft takes inspirational cues from white cube aesthetics as well as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to inaugurate a new life chapter for our client — a busy creative director and avid collector who works from home and enjoys entertaining family, friends, and colleagues.
After downsizing from a larger home, our client was eager for a modern dwelling tailored to her tastes and needs that blends elegance with functionality. The gleaming white design was conceived as a showcase for her most cherished pieces — a Louis XVI console, a Victorian daybed, Marcel Breuer chairs — with a Kubrickian twist: the collision between neoclassical and contemporary, past and future, intimacy and distance, vibrant colour and luminescent colourlessness. Reminiscent of set design, these stark juxtapositions invite a meditation on the “theatrics” of living, transforming the loft into something of an art installation itself.
White Loft’s choreography emulates a space odyssey of its own, revealing discrete zones of experience as one moves through the 1,600-sf layout, from the front door towards the main source of natural light: a glazed wall at the south end of the unit. The first room one glimpses is a semi-secluded study, adjacent to the foyer. Intentionally headquartered at the front of the loft, the study is ideal for hosting client meetings, away from the rest of the home. This peaceful workspace is anchored by a raw concrete column — deliberately left unfinished to contrast the antique furniture — and flanked by white bookshelves, cabinets, and a credenza, all custom-designed to offer options for both display and storage.
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The foyer spills into a hallway lined with custom millwork and closets, integrating all the elements of a vestibule along a linear trajectory. Rooms issue forth from the other side of the corridor, interlocking sequentially in layout to maximize the loft’s long rectangular footprint. As the hallway progresses, it gradually broadens to funnel daylight deep into the plan and accommodate a spiral stair that leads up to the rooftop terrace.
Sitting discreetly behind a sliding pocket door lies the primary suite — a tranquil bedroom, with generous built-in closets and an ensuite bathroom that deploys materials and lighting to playful and elevated effect. The shower is finished with a minimalist Corian partition that extends the entire deck of the bathtub to create an ultra-modern look. Infinity walls, which consist of curved baseboards that forge a sinuous continuum between wall and floor, are sheathed in white mosaic tiles. This cascading tile pattern introduces variation within the ever-present white palette while also helping to mitigate against slippage. LED fixtures tucked behind the vanity mirror and under the cabinet cast a light that causes the tiles to glitter and can be dimmed to create a soothing ambiance for bathing.
The powder room carries over the mosaic tile and Corian from the ensuite bathroom, but offers a vivid counterpoint: a bright red feature wall that picks up on the loft’s main accent colour. The galley kitchen was envisioned as a laboratory for cooking, with a seating area just outside that does double-duty as a breakfast nook or cocktail perch. Featuring a vintage stainless steel Bulthaup unit, the kitchen is utilitarian and easy-to-clean, with tiered storage and concealed appliances to achieve an uncluttered appearance. A partial-height wall separates the kitchen from the naturally lit living/dining room, filtering daylight into the compact cooking area.
Designed to comfortably host large groups of people, the living/dining room is a grand space for entertaining that foregrounds the juxtaposition between antique silhouettes and clean modern lines. The curved and ornate features of the chairs, console, and daybed stand in sharp relief to the contemporary custom pieces — a low, built-in storage unit that houses a full bar and a long metal dining table — heightening, while simultaneously blurring, the boundaries of time and space.
Project Information
Type
Residential
Size
1,500 sf
Location
Corktown
Client
Private
Year
2010
Photography
Angus Fergusson