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Civilian Studio
Located on the banks of the East River with views to Manhattan, the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a nascent creative hub housing over 500 small businesses across almost one hundred thousand square metres. Civilian, a multidisciplinary design practice founded by architects Nicko Elliott and Ksenia Kagner, is one such business and its twelfth-floor studio marries the building’s raw, industrial aesthetic with a warmth and resolve redolent of Civilian’s growing portfolio.
The narrow, loft-like space features a closed layout with the entrance at one end and large windows at the other. This condition heavily dictated Elliott and Kagner’s design response, which sees the room carved into smaller spaces. The primary workspace sits beneath the windows, bathed in natural light, and a meeting room and call booths encased in steel-framed windows with lightweight drapes are towards the rear. A central gathering spot includes a low-slung burgundy sofa and matching armchairs beside a timber dining table equipped for informal meetings and team lunches.
A sense of cool pervades the space thanks to Civilian’s knack for marrying the slightly offbeat and unexpected with an overarching simplicity and calm. Sculptural objects, lighting and artwork inject character and interest, and various pieces from the Hemispheres collection created by Civilian in collaboration with Australian-based hardware firm Bankston Architectural make way for artistic and tactile touchpoints throughout.
Hemispheres not only references the collection’s distinctive dome motif, but it also symbolises the geographic duality at play, with Civilian’s roots in the northern hemisphere and Bankston’s in the south. It also speaks to the genesis of this partnership: Elliott and Kagner met Bankston’s co-founders Emily and Steve Bradley by chance while on holiday several years ago, reconnecting only recently as design comrades and collaborators. In a final twist of kismet, the collection, which launched in 2024, marks Bankston’s North American debut.
With interchangeable components in five key materials – American walnut, Potoro Gold marble, polished chrome, smooth nickel and bone – the 12-piece collection is versatile. In considering their own office space, Elliott and Kagner opted for the H03 knob – a dome on a half-moon-shaped backplate. Featuring a combination of walnut and Portoro Gold marble domes on polished chrome, these knobs provide contrast and allow for an additional element of materiality in the mostly subdued palette.
Elsewhere, the H04 pull handle – its linear design defined by a pair of fine steel rods bookended by domes – adorns cupboard doors, transforming simple pieces of joinery into considered, design-centric moments animated by matte natural stone and reflective metal elements.
It is in this sentiment that the significance of Hemispheres lies; not only are the knobs, levers, pulls and door stops inherently pragmatic, but they are akin to design objects. Considered in their intent and meticulously executed, they act as conduits between the project’s interior and the human experience of it, bringing delight and intrigue to otherwise ordinary moments. At Civilian’s studio, this culminates in a warm and inviting working environment that feels like an extension of Elliott and Kanger’s own tastes, and serves as a daily reminder of the power in collaboration.
Interior Design by Civilian.
