LAYER UPON LAYER

Clockwise: Metal cables in lieu of handrails and storage under the stairs optimise space in this New York flat. The bedroom platform leads up to the roof. Founder of Specht Architects, Scott Specht. A surface in the kitchen wraps around to the living area

豐富層次

順時針：紐約單位內以金屬線取代扶手，並在樓梯下方打造儲物空間。睡床平台通往天台。Specht Architects創辦人Scott Specht。廚房面料可見於客廳 for a sofa; desks that unfold; flexible tables that can transform from coffee-table to dining-table height; and kitchen counters that fold out of the wall. Specht Architects, another US architecture firm that designed a similar micro-loft in New York City, made use of the flat’s high ceiling to build up, situating the bedroom on an added platform overlooking the living area. The property also did away with storage cabinets, instead placing storage underneath every staircase with a design inspired by Japanese step-chests, a type of mobile storage cabinetry.

There’s more to making a space look bigger than efficient storage and usage of space, however. Scott Specht, founder of Specht Architects, opted for vertical cables strung from the ceiling in place of handrails on the stairs, and using all one material for the kitchen so that it wouldn’t look "chopped up", in his words. "Another thing we did was to wrap certain surfaces from one space to another – having those surfaces flow increases the perceived size of the space," he says. He also suggests making use of front-surface mirrors, where you build a bookcase or storage unit at just above eyelevel, and then install a mirror from that point up to the ceiling, creating an optical illusion that makes the space look bigger.

For Mimi and Rowena, it’s about prioritising which spaces are more important. Mimi decided to focus on the living area. "We went macro on a bunch of things and micro on the size of the overall footprint," she explains. "We tried to make the kitchen and bathroom densely packed; we fit storage space above their ceilings, and then just left as big and simple of a volume as possible in order to maximise flexibility and the ways people might lay out their apartment." High ceilings and Juliet balconies also make the space feel spacious and luxurious.

HO≤E JOURNAL 作檯即能延伸準備食材的空間，並裝設冒出式抽氣扇；櫃和電子屏均裝嵌牆上；休息椅可從天台地面彈出。Carmel Place亦運用相同原理，如活動摺床收起來即能省出擺放沙發的空間；可收起的書桌；可轉換成咖啡桌至餐桌高度的靈活桌子；拉下牆身即成廚房工作檯。另一美國建築公司Specht Architects亦在紐約設計了一個相似的迷你頂層單位，並利用高樓底發揮，把睡房安置在新增設望向生活區的平台上。物業免卻礙眼的儲物櫃，轉而在每個樓梯下嵌入儲物元素，靈感源自日本階梯簞笥收納箱的設計，增加流動性。

除了有效儲物和空間運用之外，依然有方法讓空間看來更廣更大。Specht Architects創辦人Scott Specht表示可選擇從天下吊下垂直纜繩，取代樓梯的扶手，廚房用上統一物料，避免「斬件」的觀感。他說：「另一樣我們做過的就是利用特定面材覆蓋兩處範圍，增強空間感。」他也建議善用鏡面，在視線水平建出書櫃或儲物元件，再放上鏡子，營造空間比現實看來更大的效果。