Mercer Street Residence
Marsollier Villacorta has transformed a former textile showroom in the historic Hohner Building in Soho into a refined and characterful pied-à-terre.
Striving to preserve the raw character and spatial grandeur of the loft, architects Cyril Marsollier and Wallo Villacorta have deftly balanced poetics and pragmatics, delivering a discerning home that embraces its context and typology. From the outset, Marsollier Villacorta approached this project as an architectural excavation, seeking to uncover and amplify the loft’s historic elements, and ultimately leaning into its industrial character. “When we first walked into the apartment, it had completely been gutted and was a large vacant space,” says Marsollier. “This allowed us to appreciate the sheer scale of the volume, the quality of the sunlight throughout the day and the existing architectural features that we would want to express.”
“When we first walked into the apartment, it had completely been gutted and was a large vacant space,” says Marsollier. “This allowed us to appreciate the sheer scale of the volume, the quality of the sunlight throughout the day and the existing architectural features that we would want to express.”
Among the loft’s most desirable existing features were its intricately laid, hollow-core terracotta bricks, the row of large west-facing windows overlooking Mercer Street, lofty ceilings, curved walls and decorative ceiling rosettes. These features have been restored and are celebrated alongside sympathetic contemporary insertions and additions. This rationale surrounding material honesty, craft and detail is deeply redolent of Marsollier Villacorta’s architectural approach, which places context, materiality and authenticity at the foreground of every project.
The client’s brief outlined two separate bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, a powder room adjacent to an office that could also accommodate guests, and a large open space containing the kitchen, dining and living area. As with any loft renovation, access to natural light is an important consideration, and achieving this ambitious program without compromising on the loft’s appealing volumes or quality of light became Marsollier Villacorta’s defining challenge.
“The client’s programmatic brief was fairly dense, so it took some critical thinking to fit everything in while maintaining the openness and scales of the volumes,” says Villacorta. The response cleverly places bathrooms and circulation zones at the centre of the plan, with key living spaces towards the expansive windows. The elevator entrance is disguised by a beautifully detailed piece of custom joinery, and the existing curved walls have been expressed rather than concealed, bringing a sculptural language to the living area and office that feels intentional and authentic.
The considered material and colour palette used throughout supports this notion; toned down and reduced to merely a handful of complementary textures and tones, it plays off the loft’s industrial identity while feeling fresh and modern. In the bathrooms, grey-green limestone, ribbed bronze glass and stainless steel create an edgy mood, and custom joinery in a soft grey finish appears throughout, tying the spaces together against the backdrop of original terracotta brickwork. Layered on top is stunning curation of vintage and contemporary furniture and lighting which introduces a personal layer.
Mercer Street Residence exemplifies Marsollier Villacorta’s practice through architectural restraint, contextual specificity and a reverence for craft and materiality. Marsollier describes it as a “timeless apartment that feels grounded in the authenticity of the building and neighbourhood, without ever seeming disingenuous or contrived,” and that certainly rings true.
Architecture and interior design by Marsollier Villacorta. Build by Coburn Construction + Management. Landscape design by Looseleaft. Joinery by ACID. Lighting by Viabizzuno. Tapware by VOLA.
