Take Five

The Miner and Major is an experiment in communal living and fantastical form.

+ View Full Sized Image

Designers Serban Ionescu, Jim Dreitlein, and Justin Smith built The Miner and A Major over the course of five months. The process was iterative. Ideas were sketched out and developed as time and budget allowed. “It was an organic process,” recalls Ionescu. “When we were building it was a strange ritual. We had mattresses laid out in the main room side-by-side and it was like we were camping.”

+ View Full Sized Image

Many of The Miner and A Major’s doors and windows face south, towards the loft’s existing industrial windows. This allows sunlight to reach inside the sleeping quarters. A wedge-shaped gap also helps bring air, light and views into the deepest recesses of the sculptural construct.

+ View Full Sized Image

The five roommates share the common space in their high-ceiling loft. There’s a large library and a studio. The large worktable gives Dreitlein and Ionescu, who together have a small art/architecture practice called The Objectionists, space to paint and make models.

+ View Full Sized Image

Justin Smith’s cell-like quarters are packed full of books and art. “Each room gets the bare minimum: a sleeping area, a desk, and storage,” explains Ionescu. The designers carefully laid out the space so that the beds in each room are as far apart from each other in plan as possible, in order to get as much privacy as possible.

+ View Full Sized Image

A “Mohawk” skylight cuts across the ceiling of Dreitlein's room. The interior skylights bring in extra light and help the cell-like rooms feel more spacious.

+ View Full Sized Image

A jumble of windows framed into the bright yellow oriented strand board (OSB) wall looks out from Ionescu’s room onto the common kitchen area. Although the team worked hard to create privacy, each room has some kind of portal or opening that connects it back to the larger loft space.

+ View Full Sized Image

Count Dracula, one of two loft cats, curls up on Ionescu’s bed. An operable window swings open to allow ventilation, natural light, and a view of library.

+ View Full Sized Image

Ionescu’s room has built in shelving for his eclectic collections. “We embrace everything—new, old, anything that embraces the truth in architecture,” says Ionescu. “We’ve been compared to the Deconstructivists, but we like things that are decorative or made by hand—16th century objects, Art Nouveau, anything that has an aesthetic truth to it.”

+ View Full Sized Image

Every leftover space was put to use. Here, a narrow slot behind the structure allows just enough room for a tight walk-in closet.

+ View Full Sized Image

Confining The Miner and A Major to just one side of the loft allowed the roommates to leave the kitchen, dining, and living areas wide open. This makes it great for parties. “We wanted it to be fun, community-oriented, and playful—like the Situtationist’s credo where work is play,” says Ionescu. “It’s an experiment. It works because we are all friends. I don’t think strangers could live in this manner.”

+ View Full Sized Image

Located at the rear corner of the installation, down a progressively narrowing hallway, and reached by a steep staircase, Eric Juron’s attic-like space is the most remote of the bedrooms. A window over his desk looks down through the gap between the Major and the Minor.

+ View Full Sized Image

Low-ceilned and darker than the other quarters, it’s not a surprise that the designers call Narek Gevorgian’s room “the cave.” A work in progress, it’s their first attempt to slowly introduce color to the double-insulated interior walls.

+ View Full Sized Image