Conceived by Havard Cooper Architect in collaboration with RKV Design and LP Creative, the project began with the client’s wish to restore a rare duplex within a 19th-century co-op, to rekindle the original dignity of the architecture in honour of a colourful history. “Our client wanted to restore character, improve flow and integrate modern comforts without erasing patina,” explains Havard Cooper, project architect and practice founder. “She’s a young design-literate therapist and start-up founder with an affinity for art, travel, and culture — someone who sees her home as a form of autobiography.”Defined by Federal and Greek Revival with Tudor and Gothic overlays, the dwelling deploys an array of unique interventions that balance formality with openness. Spanning two floors of a mid-1800s row house, high-reaching windows allow light to permeate deep within for a liveable interior underpinned by an orderly framework. “Arched doorways, ironwork and plaster detailing guided the project’s restorative approach,” says Cooper. Comprising bedrooms and a generous shared garden to the lower level and a communal upper domain, legibility is restored through a sculptural spiral stair as a central spine to the abode, while viewshafts enhance visual connection from one space to the next. “Each intervention is designed to feel inevitable — respectful of its historic context yet unmistakably of its time,” adds Cooper.
