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We want your lofty ideas!

February 24th, 2023 We want your lofty ideas!

By Condo Culture

So….we’re designing a new loft project and want your help!

Ok, well we’re part of the team, an awesome team with a bunch of cool people, designing a new loft building and we couldn’t be more stoked. Lofts have always been close to our heart and represent the essence of what urban living can be. Super cool, unique spaces with character and charm that are well located and close to everything. At least, that’s the idea. The problem is, there isn’t an endless supply of old buildings to convert into lofts and a lot of cool old buildings, for a long list of reasons, just aren’t good candidates for a loft conversion. Sometimes they’ve been abandoned for years and are too far gone or structurally unsafe, sometimes the location isn’t great for residential use and sometimes the buildings are actually too wide and tend to make more sense as an office or other commercial use rather than deep, dark residential units with fewer windows. After all, one of the things we love about true lofts are the windows. Oh, the windows! There’s nothing better than a suite with big beautiful windows letting in tons of natural light. Combine that with exposed wood, brick and/or concrete, exposed mechanical elements and high ceilings and you have the key ingredients for true loft living, And that’s what a lot of us think of when we think of loft living. An old building, usually converted to lofts from another use with a ton of these cool features. These types of buildings are often referred to as hard lofts but given their limited supply, another type of loft has risen in popularity, known as the soft loft. Unlike their hard loft counterparts, soft lofts are newly built buildings that embody loft features to varying degrees, with some being more mild interpretations that lean towards more of a modern condo aesthetic with some loft-like features and others exemplifying a lot of the elements you’d find in a hard loft but in a more modern built-form. While there will always be hard loft purists - and we know who you are ;) - soft lofts can create amazing interior spaces in their own right with large windows, open spaces and exposed elements with the added benefit of usually being in a more efficient and increasingly more advanced building. Soft lofts are also great for those who like the idea of a loft but would prefer a softer more modern interior aesthetic vs. a more industrial look characteristic of a hard loft.

So, if you were designing your dream soft loft, what features would you want to see? Exposed wood ceilings, large windows, or other cool features? What’s the perfect balance of achieving a loft look in a more modern form fitting of a soft loft?

We want to hear from you!

Who knows….maybe your lofty ideas will help us create the perfect space for you to call home.

Want more details?

The loft we’re working on is a new soft loft in Kitchener, near a park, close to the LRT and walking distance to a ton of other amenities. Curious? Drop us a line and we’ll keep you in the loop and let you know as soon as it’s ready to go.

Need inspiration?

Type “lofts” into the search bar on our homepage or check out our Pinterest board, dedicated exclusively to lofts we love.

Feeling a little lazy after a long week, no worries, we’ve curated a list of some of our favourite local lofts in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Hamilton and Guelph to get the inspiration started.