Vik Muniz #3

Brooklyn Artists (Vik Muniz) Loft.

This dramatic conversion of a light manufacturing warehouse to an artist live/work loft studio juxtaposes the gritty, industrial character of the building exterior with warm, expansive interior spaces flooded by natural light.

A retractable translucent wall divides the living and working areas. When closed, its translucency directs filtered light from the linear skylight and northern exposure rear facade towards the library and studio areas. A large sloped skylight acts as a space definer between the live and work areas and a white steel and glass staircase connects the lower level with sleeping rooms and a large roof deck occupying the floor above. (bron: BWArchitects)


"Muniz, who splits his time between New York and Rio de Janeiro, hired Basil Walter Architects, a firm based in New York, to convert a 6,000 sq ft warehouse in the Clinton Hill neighbourhood of Brooklyn. His work has involved a variety of materials, from toxic waste to real diamonds, so he conceives of his studio as a “research and development lab” that must both adjoin and remain physically separate from his living area, allowing him “to connect with the world outside with a good level of privacy”. As an open-format studio-loft, it preserves the building’s original industrial exterior, but the inside is framed by stretches of windows and a giant skylight, and a retractable translucent wall divides the studio from the living room and kitchen.

A few years ago, Muniz came across a photo album documenting the studios of successful artists working in the 19th and early 20th centuries, from Edouard Manet to André Breton. “The spaces were all so similar,” he says, “with taxidermy, extensive libraries, art from friends and peers, and amazing light. The fact that an artist normally entertains a lot of people in his studio inevitably makes the space a personal stage where he can display not only his work but also everything that inspires it.”

Evoking those earlier spaces, Muniz’s studio is crammed with 19th-century sculptures, surrealist objects, and glass cabinets displaying optical toys, bones, and minerals. The walls are lined with books; a muted television is switched on most of the time. “Art has to be connected to life in its most mundane details,” he says. “With all the distractions of having kids and dogs bursting into your studio the moment you are about to make your lifetime masterpiece, I still believe that the artist has to make art from a place he can call home.” (bron: Financial Times, tekst: Emily Nathan)

Artist Vik Muniz's Live/Work Studio. (bron: Elle Decor, foto's: William Waldron)

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