The peculiarity of the vertical shafts passing between inhabited floors above the city is subjected to a heightened awareness in Virtual Light Loft.
The existing loft building had been converted by a developer unaware of the spatial quality so desirable in downtown Manhattan lofts. Misunderstanding “loft” simply as “large space”, the construction within the loft was limited to a large, square, static room, onto which had been grafted a conventional apartment bedroom arrangement, with its typical narrow hallway and entirely closed rooms. Restricting the hallway on either side were plumbing and mechanical shafts, which made any displacement of the corridor all but impossible. Like many buildings, these hidden zones of supportive entrails, which allow all urban living to exist, were embedded in the poché surrounding the hall, strangling any opportunity for their spatial engagement. Only by freeing these shafts from their enclosure, exposing their vertical connection and allowing them to exist independently, was the space able to breathe.
