11 Feb 2025
Min Design, led by E.B. Min, AIA, is a San Francisco-based award-winning architecture studio whose residential spaces transcend mere function. Their approach, a delicate dance between art and architecture, results in environments that are both elegant and textural, imbued with a quiet sophistication. With thoughtful consideration for the interplay of natural light, form, and flow, the studio creates homes that are not just shelters, but also sanctuaries – intimate havens where the everyday becomes extraordinary.
“Our design makes the ephemeral physical through catching light and shadow, framing views, and orchestrating surprise and delight,” explains Min. “Functionally, our work communicates a client’s values and aspirations. All of it is guided by practical considerations and challenges.”
Two such projects that illustrate the studio's approach are Capturing Light, an urban oasis that ingeniously navigates light dynamics, and Tribeca Penthouse, a historic remodel demonstrating an elegant solution to its existing challenges.
Capturing Light
Min Design’s most recent San Francisco residential project, Capturing Light, transforms the experience of urban living by intricately exploring the dynamics of light. With a very constrained site that has only two exposures, the owner’s overriding desire was to shed light throughout the house.
Despite challenges posed by neighbouring structures and limited window exposures, the design ingeniously captures and manipulates light to craft intimate and contemplative spaces. Min Design was able to create a series of moments throughout the home that reflect, highlight, or manipulate light in a variety of ways. Through a delicate balance of direct, indirect, reflected, and borrowed lighting techniques, the house emerges as a luminous sanctuary amidst the urban landscape. Capturing Light reflects a home where art and architecture are notably present within the design.
Tribeca Penthouse
Min Design reimagined a penthouse apartment nestled atop a converted 1884 former warehouse in New York City. Collaborating closely with the homeowners, the firm embraced a light-handed approach, introducing elegant architectural elements that seamlessly meld with the building's historic character. The result is a serene, playful, and highly functional living space tailored to accommodate a family with young children.
In response to the owners' desire for a quietly sophisticated ambience, Min Design employed durable, unfussy materials and a minimal colour palette. This design ethos serves as a striking counterpoint to the existing heavy timber framework of the building while providing a tasteful backdrop for the family's artwork.
Throughout the apartment, thoughtful architectural interventions such as recesses, wall columns, and soffits integrated seamlessly into bespoke cabinetry create visually refined spaces.
The redesign of the stairs, in particular, posed a unique challenge, with an elegant and playful solution. With a shifted stacking layout and original open risers with glass railings, the stairs felt out of place within the apartment's context. Min Design ingeniously transformed it into a focal point, utilizing folded steel plates to define its form and capture daylight, infusing the space with an airy brightness.
