KEEPING IT PERSONAL

BOTH LIVING and working at home is something we have all become well-acquainted with this past year; for Sofie and Frank Christensen Egelund, it is a concept they long ago perfected. Since moving to New York from Copenhagen in 2014 to run the stateside operations for Vipp – the Danish design brand founded by Sofie’s grandfather, Holger Nielsen, in 1939 – the couple has combined the personal and the professional on a daily basis, with their home doubling as a showroom. This past autumn, with their two children and golden retriever, the couple moved into a new space on the cusp of Tribeca: a sprawling 350-square-metre loft on the fifth floor of a former factory building dating from 1883. They first encountered the building in 2016 while visiting friends who lived on a lower floor. They were struck by the L-shaped floor plan, the integrity of its much-prized pre-war Manhattan architecture, and the abundance of windows. “The bones were really good and the light was absolutely insane,” says Sofie. When their friends mentioned that an upstairs neighbour might be willing to sell even though the apartment was not formally on the market, Sofie and Frank were determined to make it their own. It took several years to negotiate a purchase and after nearly a year of gut renovations, their new home is finally open for business.

“It’s been a long love story with a lot of sweat and tears,” says Sofie, whose husband adds that she started designing the space in her head after the first time they saw it. “There was so much back and forth but it was worth it in the end,” says Frank. Though the couple designed the interiors entirely, they worked with the Lebanese firm Raëd Abillama Architects on the structural elements. The custom joinery was crafted in Beirut by Elie Chaker.

A private lift opens onto a foyer outfitted in blackened steel. Lit by south-facing windows, it’s a dramatic yet soothing entryway with a concealed spacious wardrobe. A quick turn left and the centrepiece of the apartment instantly reveals itself: an airy, open-plan kitchen and dining room where a Vipp modular, industrial-style kitchen system in matte black, powder-coated steel and aluminium makes a bold impression. The hero product is no nonsense, highly-functional and just outright cool. Thanks to a full wall of three-metre-high windows (the apartment has 17 windows in total), light pours in and illuminates the textural feast that transpires across the space.

A wooden sculpture by the American artist Lawrence Kenny inhabits a gallery space adjacent to the study, which one must pass through to reach the rest of the apartment. Entitled 9’ x 9’ x 9’ it is a spare, three-dimensional cubic structure that literally frames the area. “It creates a sensation of the space being somehow full and empty at the same time; it has this very strange effect and now even our dog has learned to walk through it carefully,” says Sofie. While decidedly beautiful and grown-up, there is also a sense of wonder that permeates the apartment: the many cabinets hiding curiosities, the art inviting further inspection, the prototypes offering glimpses of what might come to be. Exploring, extending, evolving not least here, against a backdrop of day-to-day family life in Manhattan.

“Instead of calling it a work-home space we call it home-work, because this is really how we live,” says Frank. “We wouldn’t have done this differently if this were only our private home: this is who we are, this is what we like, and I think that shines through.”