This minimal loft apartment for a New York-based photographer has areas for meeting clients, entertaining guests and escaping city bustle.

The Photographer's Loft occupies a 5,000-square-foot former industrial space, complete with cast-iron columns and plentiful large windows.
Desai Chia Architecture's 2014 renovation created a "serene" environment, where public and private areas are separated but an open circulation flow is retained.

"The client asked Desai Chia to design a home that would serve as a work space and gallery for her photography while also providing spaces for entertaining with friends," said the studio, founded by Katherine Chia and Arjun Desai.

Upon entrance, a library-cum-reception area provides a space for meeting clients and gallerists, and showing off work. Horizontal rows of wooden shelves cover one wall, storing albums and research materials, and a large desk for presenting portfolios occupies the centre of the room.
Continuing on this axis, past frosted-glass partitions there is a long area that acts as a studio workspace. Low counters offer places to compile and frame images, while taller units to one side conceal a dressing area.

A bedroom concealed by pocket doors completes this west-east series of spaces, tucked away to provide a zone for quiet and calm.
In the larger portion of the apartment to the south, an open-plan living and cooking area takes advantage of the many windows that wrap around the building's corner.

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