Took from www.fastcodesign.com
Designer Roberto Gil has been making custom furniture with a small team of woodworkers in his studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn, for over two decades. Though his company, Casa Collection, started out doing custom cabinetry jobs for architects, its claim to fame has long been Casa Kids—a line of stylish and compact bunk beds for city kids that have been featured in MoMA, The Whitney and Guggenheim museum shops.
Now, it's making them for adults.
A little over six months ago, Gil was approached by a client so pleased with their kids' set-up they commissioned one of their own: a King-sized bed with a built-in walk-in closet underneath. Sensing a market in city dwellers pressed for space, Gil released a line of beautiful, versatile loft beds for adults in February.
Right now, the collection consists of two designs: the Urbano loft and the Arca loft.The former is a standardized version of Gil's first commission and includes a king-sized bed with a walk-in closet. The whole piece is optimized for storage: stairs flanking the bed and leading up to the loft also function as drawers, and a cabinet in the closet houses a roll-out Trundle bed for guests.
The Arca is queen-sized with a desk, bench, and storage space housed underneath (at a little over six feet tall, there's no room for standing as there is in the Urbano). According to Gil, the beds will fit as long as you have space enough for a king- or queen-sized bed plus two side tables, as well as high ceilings (10.5 feet for the Urbano and 8.5 feet for the Arca).
Maximizing space in small apartments is often a matter of building up rather than out, and Casa's beds have the benefit of being both multifunctional and compact. Made from birch and walnut plywood, the lofts are comprised of modular parts that can also be taken apart during a move. Gil says he is planning on extending the line further, and has also been in the talks with boutique hotels that see the lofts as a way to offer adequate room for families of three.
We can imagine them becoming popular with Airbnb hosts in big cities—the more people you can fit comfortably in your tiny apartment, the more bang for your buck. You can purchase the Urbano for $15,000 and the Arca for $6,000 here.
All Photos: via Casa Collection