architects delight in constraints. A sheer cliff, an enormous boulder, some mature trees—every challenge is an opportunity, every obstacle a eureka moment. (Just ask John Lautner, Oscar Niemeyer, and Lina Bo Bardi.) Where others might see cumbersome red tape in the form of setback requirements and height restrictions, architects see puzzling frameworks in which to work their creative magic.
Enlisted by a creative couple to update their Manhattan town house, AD100 talent Giancarlo Valle found no such conditions to navigate. Recently constructed and lacking in character, the five-story downtown dwelling was just box rooms, white walls, and soulless developer details—an aesthetic vacuum, for all intents and purposes. And so, deprived of any natural jumping-off points, Valle created his own. “A project like this, it’s a blank canvas,” he reflects. “You…
