Can a sober and serious design evoke a whimsical sense of wonder and discovery? In an apartment in New York's Lower East Side, a table, a rug, and a room-sized wooden box are designed to be architectural realism: when one discovers — hidden in plain sight — a world that expands into a private and personal world. This interior decoration was carried out on the second floor of a cast-iron building, in a spacious attic filled with diffused indirect light.

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The initial layout placed all major living functions in one open space, with the kitchen, dining and living areas all around, with the center vacant and unused. It is unusual to break up a majestic, light-filled space. However, owners believe a separate space will better meet their needs. The idea is obvious: with the arrival of the new crown pandemic, the desire to live in an open attic has completely lost its attractiveness. Partitions can provide privacy options and a feeling of not always being in the same space. The proposed redesign fully accepts this challenge, breaking up a single limited room and replacing it with a smaller space that does not immediately expose its boundaries. The modified interior layout revolves around a new, unobtrusive element: a room-sized wooden box hidden from view inside the apartment. From the looks of it, the box is almost inconspicuous. Its interior — covered in wood like a Renaissance “studio” — is warm and rich. The double height adapts to different usage options at different times: space for play, rest, work or study.

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When a person leaves the box, the attic's spacious, tall columns and sudden opening reappear in people's view as a surprise. The scale of the deception is also related to the huge custom carpets that are clearly visible in the living area. Its colors — a mix of pink, beige and blue — blend in with the varied tones of the wood floor. The rug is the biggest item in the house—its irregular oval shape stretches out to take up as much space as possible—but its subtle colors and inconspicuous shapes make it strangely unremarkable. Finally, the object in the space is an unobtrusive dining table, both slim and magnificent. Its most striking feature is the double desktop. On the structure, the tiered table serves as a beam to prevent bending. Functionally, the lower desks allow for a quick transition from work to meal — as computer, paper, and paperwork are quickly stored away. A more secret detail of the table is completely hidden from view.
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