Facing a small urban square, the Loft Studio opens entirely to the outside. The inner space of this photography studio flows into the side gardens of the building and into the urban space, establishing a spatial continuity between the square and the building. The façade, an aluminum gate is recessed into the concrete binding, integrating the front patio with the square; further, two large swinging metal gates – each more than 11 meters wide – permit fluidity between the gardens and the open space of the studio.
Opened, these swinging gates make all visual barriers between internal and external space disappear. Closed, they allow the light in the Photography Studio to be controlled artificially. In the opening of the ground floor, there is a box clad in formica-china, where we have the lavatory, dressing room and the technical area. In this space, there is no interference of the structure, which is built into the side walls of the building. Behind the green box, the stairs – lighted by a skylight – leads to the first floor, where we find the offices and the library. A volume with metallic material organizes all the space on this floor, separating the rooms and corridors. On this floor there is a kitchen the lavatories and the stairs that lead to the top floor. The negative of this volume is the work rooms which can be opened or closed – depending on the desired privacy – through sliding panels which are built into the central box. In the main office a fixed mashrabiya panel filters the light, while simultaneously opening a beautiful view of the large trees in the square.
On the top floor, there is a social room positioned over the front garden. This space opens with folding wooden panels, painted red, onto a deck where you can once again see the tree tops: a pleasant space for meetings on sunny days.
The material used internally displays an industrial aesthetic, appropriate for the intensive use of a photography Studio that needs to constantly transform itself, depending on the situation. The floor of the large opening is of white resin which also becomes the endless back and the wall. On the other floors, the wooden floor warms the ambient. Externally, the metal doors join the exposed concrete and the different colored wooden panels.
