SABO Project Rounds Off a 728-Square-Foot Manhattan Apartment

SABO Project has renovated a 728-square-foot (68-square-metre) apartment on Manhattan's Lower East Side, rounding the corners of walls and partitions to loosen the plan for a family of three. The New York and Paris design studio worked with contractor Alexar Interiors on the retrofit.

The move is simple arithmetic. Fewer hard corners, more visible floor. The studio opened up the plan and softened the joints between functional zones to improve the flow.

"The design aims to soften divisions between spaces so the apartment is experienced as a central living room extending into surrounding alcoves," SABO Project said.

What does the apartment look like?

The residence keeps an industrial register: exposed breeze-block walls (hollow concrete masonry), metal ductwork, a concrete ceiling and polished concrete flooring. Nothing plush at the bones.

Steel structural beams carry a shade of mid green. The same green returns on the lower kitchen cabinets, on curtains and in artwork around the home. It's a single-note palette, played insistently.

"The apartment balances the rough materiality of exposed masonry blocks and ductwork with the soft textures of bespoke curtains, shades, and rugs," the studio said. "Bold graphic forms animate curtains designed for each room."

In the open-plan living area, a circular rug sits at the centre. The ceiling mirrors it with a white-painted circle crossed by a minimalist light fixture.

Along one wall, stacks of concrete blocks with arch-shaped openings form a bench and a display console, with a small wooden table at one end.

"A long bench runs from the main room into a small outdoor space, conceived as an interior and enclosed with light-filtering fabric and a delicate steel mesh," said the studio.

How do the other rooms work?

The sun room opens through sliding glass doors from the living area and a swing door from the kitchen. Green outdoor furniture from the Bouroullec brothers' Palissade collection adds seating beside the breeze-block bench.

Two identically sized bedrooms — one for the parents, one for the child — share the apartment's colour and material palette. Quartets of breeze blocks sit stacked on their sides as nightstands with cubbies, and green resurfaces in the bedding.

The bathroom runs a quieter trick: white tiles with green grout get progressively smaller toward the ceiling, building a gradient through density alone. A lozenge-shaped mirror and sconce, plus a basin with filleted corners, extend the rounded language.

Who is SABO Project?

Architect Alexandre Delaunay founded the studio and works between New York and Paris on residential, commercial and cultural projects. The portfolio shows a habit of pragmatic oddities: a Brooklyn loft with an irregular clustered storage unit, a Parisian apartment with multicoloured flooring and space-saving stairs, and another Paris residence with peg-hole walls and a curved child-proof staircase.

The Lower East Side flat, published on Dezeen on 7 November 2026, confirms the pattern — one modest budget, one disciplined gesture, repeated until it reads as architecture.