A Study in Teak

The client, a rare-book collector, asked for a home that was also an archive. Our response was one continuous piece of joinery: a teak ribbon that begins as the entry bench, climbs as the stair balustrade, becomes the double-height library wall, and ends as the headboard upstairs.

Climate-controlled book cabinets hide behind flush teak doors; a rolling ladder serves the upper shelves.

Everything else in the apartment defers to the ribbon — pale floors, plaster walls, and light that rakes across the wood grain in the late afternoon.