Amazing Unfolding Origami Apartment video - OffBeat Spaces

ERIC SCHNEIDER: Hi, I'm Eric Schneider.
I'm a teacher.
MICHAEL CHEN: I'm Michael Chen.
I'm an architect.
ERIC SCHNEIDER: We're about to go into my apartment on the
Upper West Side.
MICHAEL CHEN: We call it the Unfolding Apartment.

ERIC SCHNEIDER: I moved into the apartment
about five years ago.
And then it was very much an empty space.
The process of renovating this apartment is definitely thanks
to my knowing Michael.
MICHAEL CHEN: Eric has a really full life.
He cooks in here, he entertains, he works a little
bit from home.
So he really needed all of the function of a much larger
apartment than the one that he ended up buying.
So then the strategy really became about how to compress
all of that extra stuff into a really small apartment.

When we were designing the apartment, there wasn't really
a place to have a full size refrigerator.
These are two under cabinet refrigerators.
They go underneath the counter and they have a panel to match
the rest of the cabinetry.
The idea was to conceal as many of the things in the
kitchen as possible.
So this is the dishwasher, just behind a custom panel.
We didn't want to see a lot of exposed stuff.
ERIC SCHNEIDER: In this small apartment, this feels like a
full kitchen.
I love that there's such a large expanse of counter that
I can easily work at and be present with my guests.
They can comfortably sit at the counter.
It's probably my favorite part of the apartment.

Welcome to my bedroom.
This is a Murphy bed in its down position.
It's just a normal mattress that's plopped into the box
that goes up and down.
It's very easy.
Very comfortable, if I do say so myself.
You can see the little bed nook, and there's light back
there, which is very nice.
The hinge makes lifting the bed pretty light and it just
swings right up.
This is the home office here.
This desk goes up and clicks into place very conveniently.

So this is the living room here.
It comfortably seats up to six people, but we can
squeeze more in.
The table is nice because it has leaves that open out and
extend out to have more space.
I knew it would just be a nice space to be in, but it was the
concept of Michael's plans that really left me with a
sense that I could live here in a really wonderful way.
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