In New York’s Tribeca, an apartment within a historic red-brick building has been transformed into a home that balances industrial character with warmth, intimacy, and contemporary sophistication. Designed by Muqaddas Akkari Studio (MA Studio), the 4,200-square-foot residence occupies one of five apartments in a six-storey building dating to the 1880s, originally associated with a candy factory. Completed in April 2025, the renovation preserves the loft’s defining architectural qualities while giving them a more domestic and nuanced expression.
The apartment arrived with an extraordinary sense of scale. Eighteen-foot ceilings, original timber beams, exposed brick, an open-plan arrangement, and a large skylight established a strong industrial identity. Yet this grandeur also presented a challenge: the space could feel more like a dramatic loft than a comfortable home. MA Studio approached the renovation by preserving these original elements while introducing softness, warmth, and a stronger sense of rhythm.
The design is built around a dialogue between opposites. Raw materials meet refined finishes; generous open spaces are balanced by intimate rooms; and bright, daylight-filled areas give way to darker, more atmospheric settings. Rather than imposing a single mood across the apartment, the designers created a sequence of distinct experiences that remain connected through a coherent material and architectural language.
One of the most significant interventions is the new sculptural plaster staircase. The original narrow metal spiral staircase was awkwardly positioned and created a weak connection between the two levels. By reorienting the layout around a new staircase, MA Studio established a stronger architectural centre for the home. The plaster form now functions simultaneously as circulation, sculpture, and a visual anchor, connecting the two floors while reinforcing the sense of continuity throughout the apartment.
The importance of planning is evident throughout the project. Rather than dividing the loft into a collection of conventional rooms, the studio focused on how one space leads into another. The resulting sequence feels intuitive, allowing the apartment to retain its openness while introducing moments of compression and intimacy.
The kitchen and dining areas form one of the home’s brightest and most expansive zones. A skylight positioned above the large kitchen island brings daylight into the centre of the space, making the kitchen a natural focal point for daily life and entertaining. The openness of these areas reinforces the apartment’s generous proportions while keeping the atmosphere relaxed and welcoming.
Elsewhere, the mood becomes deliberately more intimate. The bar and powder room move toward deeper tones, richer finishes, and lower levels of light. These darker spaces provide a counterpoint to the brighter communal areas and become particularly atmospheric in the evening, reflecting the client’s interest in hosting and music.
This contrast between light and shadow gives the residence its rhythm. The apartment does not depend on one uniform aesthetic; instead, its character emerges through a series of shifts in scale, light, material, and atmosphere.
The daily living room offers another carefully calibrated moment. Located beside arched windows overlooking the neighbourhood, it was designed to feel intimate despite the overall scale of the loft. An existing brick wall was covered with light plaster, visually relating it to the new staircase and softening the industrial character of the room. At the same time, the treatment places greater emphasis on the windows and the views beyond.
The private areas upstairs adopt a quieter character. Each bathroom was developed as an individual experience through different combinations of materials, lighting, and custom vanities. In the master bathroom, handcrafted tiles and a freestanding bath create a calm, tactile setting, while the larger guest bathroom incorporates a hot-stone sauna, introducing a discreet wellness element into the home.
Furniture and objects add another layer of individuality. MA Studio collaborated with New York design gallery Love House for the staging and worked with Known Work, whose pieces appear throughout the residence. The selection introduces sculptural forms and crafted details without overwhelming the architecture, allowing individual objects to establish moments of personality within the larger composition.
The strength of Tribeca Residence lies in its restraint. The designers did not attempt to conceal the building’s industrial origins, nor did they turn those historic elements into decoration. Brick, timber, height, and openness remain fundamental to the experience, while new interventions bring a softer and more contemporary layer to the home.
The result is an interior that feels both grounded and sophisticated. Its character comes from the tension between old and new, monumental scale and domestic comfort, raw surfaces and carefully crafted details. The architecture provides the memory; the interior gives it a new rhythm.
Tribeca Residence demonstrates that a historic loft does not need to choose between preserving its identity and adapting to contemporary life. Through careful planning, tactile materials, sculptural interventions, and a sophisticated play of light and atmosphere, MA Studio has created a home that respects its past while feeling unmistakably present.
It is a residence shaped not by excess, but by balance where industrial architecture becomes intimate, and where the grandeur of a historic New York loft is softened into a place made for living.
Muqaddas Akkari Studio (MA Studio) is a design practice led by Selma Akkari and Rawan Muqaddas, longtime friends and former architecture classmates. Based in London, the studio works across interiors, architecture, furniture, and objects, developing a distinct design vocabulary for each project.
The practice explores the relationship between minimalism and warmth, combining contemporary design with an appreciation for traditional methods of making. Its approach places particular emphasis on construction, detail, materiality, and craftsmanship, often using unconventional or playful materials to create spaces with a strong sense of identity.
MA Studio’s work has been recognised by AD100 Middle East, and its portfolio spans residential and hospitality interiors as well as furniture and bespoke objects.
For Tribeca Residence, MA Studio worked with Sarah Jacoby Architect, who served as Architect of Record. The MA Studio design team comprised Selma Akkari, Rawan Muqaddas, and Fajer Al Qattan.
Founders: Selma Akkari & Rawan Muqaddas
Studio: Muqaddas Akkari Studio (MA Studio)
Based: London, United Kingdom
Fields: Interior Design, Architecture, Furniture & Objects
Project: Tribeca Residence, New York
Interior Design: MA Studio
Architect of Record: Sarah Jacoby Architect
Photography: Joe Kramm
