You don’t have to speak loud to make a point. That is why this house is seductive in its modest identity. Designed by Karolina and Adam, founders of a New York-based architecture studio Only If, Narrow House bends the reality of Brooklyn’s neighborhood of Bedford – Stuyvesant. I can feel the gravity pull the second I turn around the corner and see it from afar for the first time.
I wish I could stand outside for a bit longer and have a better look but of course I’m late. I rush on the charming street passing by characteristic brown stone houses to stand in front of a simple form with three large ceiling-to-floor windows. The entrance is guarded by a small gate made from metal mesh. The same material has been used for the few steps leading to the front door. What a good idea it was not to wear hills today. There is something comforting about the scale of the building I’m about to enter. It reminds me of Japanese coziness. In a moment I’m about to discover just how much this resemblance is accurate.
After ringing the bell, I’m first greeted by blue-eyed husky. She doesn’t bark, she just stares at me through the window while I wait for the hosts to open the door. In a house like that – it might take a moment.
– I’m sorry I’m late. Took me 3 months but I’m finally here – I say still in a rush.
– That’s ok – says Karolina – I hope you eat bread, I forgot to ask, and I made avocado toasts. We get it from a very good bakery nearby.
The dining table is next to the entrance so I can have a quick gaze at what is on it. Lavish salad, salmon, avocado, fruits, coffee. I guess they eat as they build. I start to wonder when I can move in.
Working around limits
This is not a New York kind of space in any means possible. First: the amount of space is ridiculous. Majestic ceiling of the first level compensates the narrowness. The whiteness of the walls and light grayness of the floor create an ephemeral atmosphere of a tunnel leading to the moving piece of art that is another large window on the back yard side of the house.
– We realize that having such large living area in New York City is a luxury.- says Karolina.
– We tried to design it without superfluity. – adds Adam.
The only thing more attractive than the interior, are the hosts themselves. She is Polish, he is American. Both slim, smiling, and confident. They are a team in life and professionally. From the way they look at each other and communicate over the choice of tableware I sense how unshakable their bond is. Their grace is soothing.
– However, the most rewarding part of owning the house is that the space was generated from otherwise unwanted, small pieces of land using our creativity and design skills. – she adds.
– How did your life changed since you moved in not that long ago? – I ask over a hot mug of black coffee standing in the kitchen and trying to look useful.
– We’ve previously mostly lived in very small spaces in Rotterdam, Hong Kong, and New York City (also during the pandemic), so moving into the house was a significant change for us. – says Karolina – We could finally unpack all our books from boxes and have them all at hand. Adam and I like to entertain and cook, so having a house (and ample counter space) allows us to invite friends for special occasions and spontaneous gatherings. We often host family members and guests traveling from afar, which is a big highlight for me.
Transforming into a desirable neighborhood because of its charm and still low prices, Bedford – Stuyvesant is characterized by a number of vacant lots of land that were an outcome of so-called urban renewal. That includes the site where Narrow House is built. A previous building on that lot was demolished in the 70s, and the space was empty since Karolina and Adam bought it in 2015.
– In parallel to the Narrow House project, we’ve been researching residual, vacant, and irregular lots that exist throughout New York City. – Karolina explains while we move slowly towards the table with the previously mentioned toasts awaiting us. – We identified and cataloged 3,600 such lots, 600 of which were owned by the city. These lots are produced by diagonal streets, easements, and historical conditions before the grid. Due to their atypical dimensions and area, the lots and current zoning regulations remain unused.
In 2017, they exhibited the research under the name “Irregular Development” at the Shenzhen Biennale, to demonstrate the potential of these sites through speculative housing prototypes. They are also a winner of the open international competition organized by the AIA New York and New York City Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to develop 23 city-owned vacant, irregular lots, including an identical, vacant lot directly adjacent to ours.
– So far, the process of developing is on pause – adds Adam – But in the meantime we really like living here in Brooklyn; its trees, scale, density, and the community. I think it really feels like a neighborhood. We can also walk to our nearby office.
Speaking of that: Adam has to leave for a business meeting. We stay with Karolina to finish eating and afterwards I get a tour.
Tour the White
Aesthetically speaking Narrow House is a kind of space I left behind back in Warsaw in order to move to New York. Visiting Karolina and Adam reminds me of how it feels to be precise in ordering your belongings, collecting art, allowing yourself to buy books you may not finish reading. Being meditative about cooking.
The ground floor in itself feels enough, but there is more: a basement level, and two levels up. Upstairs’ spaces hold two bedrooms and a work study, which may be converted into an additional third bedroom. The bedrooms are separated from other spaces through a plywood volume, containing bathrooms, closets, and pocket doors.
All is connected by a light staircase and filled with light. There are no walls inside the interior – the furniture designed by the owners serves as dividers of the space. Such openness is not only an architectural statement – it speaks about the relationship even if that was not the intention.
I’m delighted by the naked fluorescent lamps hang in the staircase like art pieces in a blue-chip gallery. Even little transistors inside the glass frames of the lamps serve as a tasteful decoration. Karolina explains that they waited for those specific frames because usually the insides are masked as unappealing. I find this precision electrifying. This is my kind of minimalism – very intellectual, conceptual yet cozy and homy. Geometry and cleanness of order had to submit to Karolina’s and Adam’s taste.
– Why minimalism? – I ask, while we enter the first bedroom on the second level. The floor’s feel nice under my feet. No extra details or useless decorations.
– We don’t subscribe to any specific design aesthetic, and all our projects emerge from the combination of logical and intuitive decisions specific to each problem. In the Narrow House, we focused on maximizing the space and daylight on a narrow 3.6m lot. We used materials to emphasize the spatial qualities of the house rather than decorate it. The grey poured polyurethane floors create continuity between all areas of the house, plywood volume integrates bathroom and storage on bedroom floors, and black wood and terrazzo bar define the kitchen area. – Karolina explains.
As a person who lived through more than one total apartment makeover, I have to ask how working together on their private space affected the relationship.
– We were both deeply involved in the design process and were assisted by several members of our team earlier in the design process. – explains Karolina.
I guess if they survived this, they could take on any challenge.
Set in stone
After climbing with Karolina to the end of the staircase I look down. The whirlpool of the minimalist textures gives me a little vertigo. Sunlight bounces off metal, concrete, and warm hues of plywood and modernist-like furniture on the ground level. It is so quiet that I hallucinate that I can hear clouds above us moving.
– So, what is your favorite part of the house? If I were living here, I would have a new one every other week.
Karolina smiles. She thought that too just after they moved in.
– But now the study is where I like to spend time the most. A square, pale green Workbench table designed by Atelier Van Lieshout and manufactured by Lensvelt is the central defining element of that space and my favorite piece of furniture in the whole house. Although it’s my space to focus, because of its large window and old trees in the backyard, I feel like I am in a tree house and constantly aware of changing weather and seasons. – she explains.
The whole composition of the Narrow House’s interior wouldn’t be complete without pieces of art. They blend in perfectly and enrich the whole design. I see mostly photography, places, and objects I don’t recognize. I ask about their preferences.
– Collecting art is a long and personal process, so we are not in a rush. We consider furniture and smaller objects art, too, and own several new and second-hand designer pieces we had for a long time. On the walls, we have a combination of photographs, prints, collages, and old postcards. Adam’s mom is a photographer, so we have several of her pictures featuring Mumbai. – elaborates Karolina as we walk down the staircase to sit down on the sofa to talk some more.
The most significant piece they own at this point is a photograph by Yan Wang Preston, a Chinese-British artist. The image presents a small park under concrete highway overpasses in Chongqing, China.
– It reminds us about our time living and working in that part of the world. – she explains – We recently bought a print by Nikodem Szpunar and a collage by Maria Mróz.
As we sit down, I feel still overwhelmed by the honesty of the House. In the attempt no to come out passive, I keep wondering around the living room area and finally having a closer look at the rare garden where I see a pointy large rock – just like in a Japanese Zen Garden. Its uneven surface and abstract pattern are magnetic. I bet it looks great covered by snow in the winter too.
– Oh, you have to tell me the story behind that rock! – I say enthusiastically.
– We went to a befriended stonemason to pick it up. He wasn’t surprised when we explained what we need the rock for. The house wouldn’t be completed without it. – says Karolina.
I couldn’t agree more.
