Soft-Firm, US: Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2022
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory is our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios. US studio Soft-Firm and its Brooklyn-brownstone transformation Generation House excited us, and the practice has joined the 2022 list

Michael Vahrenwald - Photography
New York-based studio Soft-Firm and its Generation House in Brooklyn have made it into the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2022, our annual list of exciting emerging practices from across the globe, thanks to directors Lexi Tsien and Talitha Liu’s sense of experimentation and multidisciplinary approach.
Who: Soft-Firm
Lexi Tsien and Talitha Liu form the New York-based interdisciplinary studio Soft-Firm. Founded in 2018, the practice works across speculative research, art installations, exhibitions, and residential and commercial projects. As its playful name suggests, Soft-Firm does not consider itself a traditional practice but a platform ‘to expand hunches, glitches and inside jokes into architectural ideas’.
The studio’s design process is an open-ended exchange between themselves, their clients and the surrounding context. Liu describes their role as ‘provid[ing] an infrastructure or toolkit for our clients to use and adapt’. Tsien adds: ‘We want them to take over the spaces, for the design to be of service to them.’
‘We do not view our installations as objects, but tools to empower the community,’ they explain. This is evident in the Drive Thru project, an installation of two rotating screens at an intersection in New York City, commissioned by the Van Alen Institute. The community’s response to the installation surpassed the architects’ expectations – it was used to host dances and the local mosque held an iftar meal there – becoming ‘larger than what we originally imagined’. This strong ethos of collaboration, equity and experimentation can be seen in other projects, such as Generation House (pictured) and Love Letter, an installation in Times Square that invites the public to leave their own love letters to the city.
What: Generation House
Generation House has been designed to not only weather the passage of time but embrace it. The remodelling of the four-storey brownstone house in Brooklyn began as a project between Lexi Tsien and her mother. The house has been transformed from a single-family dwelling to accommodate three co-living spaces that can be adapted to accommodate various family structures.
Already, in the one year since its construction, the use of the building has shifted and grown to support a group of women of colour who are engaged in creative labour and activism. This transformation is aided by the configuration of the space, which cultivates flexibility and adaptability. At the core of the parlour level, there are movable grey armoires on casters made from Valchromat to offer storage, and pink linen-silk curtains on a curvilinear track are used to provide privacy for the bedroom. ‘We are living in our own experiment,’ says Tsien.
The building is characterised by a sensitivity to history and sustainability. The grand wooden cupboard has been repurposed into doors for the parlour; leftover Italian acetate has been reused for the kitchen cabinet pulls; and salvaged metal wired grids were used to create the coffee table. The choice of materials echoes Soft-Firm’s collaborative, lo-fi approach. ‘We hope that the house will continue to change, transform and surprise us,’ the team says.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Why: Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2022
Conceived in 2000 as an international index of emerging architectural talent, the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory is our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe. While always championing the best and most promising young studios, over the years, the project has showcased inspiring work with an emphasis on the residential realm. Now including more than 500 alumni, the Architects’ Directory is back for its 22nd edition. Join us as we launch this year’s survey – 20 young studios from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, Paraguay, Thailand, the UAE, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam with plenty of promise, ideas and exciting architecture.
INFORMATION
-
A street-like Pune clubhouse celebrates the ‘joy of shared, unhurried experiences’
A brick clubhouse in Pune by Studio VDGA reflects the fluidity and openness of the Indian way of life with a series of welcoming plazas, courtyards and lanes
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Kitchen Trends 2026: luminosity, colour, and unexpected materiality
These are kitchen trends shaping interior design in 2026, from collaborative kitchens to warm luminosity
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Discover this sleek-but-warm sanctuary in the heart of the Wyoming wilds
This glorious wood-and-stone residence never misses a chance to show off the stirring landscape it calls home
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
Peel back this Michigan lakeside house’s cool slate exterior to reveal a warm wooden home
In Detroit, Michigan, this lakeside house, a Y-shaped home by Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects, creates a soft balance between darkness and light through its minimalist materiality
-
Inside the new theatre at Jacob’s Pillow and its ‘magic box’, part of a pioneering complex designed for dance
Jacob’s Pillow welcomes the reborn Doris Duke Theatre by Mecanoo, a new space that has just opened in the beloved Berkshires cultural hub for the summer season
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners’ passions
Architect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts, have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic midcentury modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in California
A minimalist weekend retreat was designed as a counterpoint to a San Francisco pied-à-terre; Edmonds + Lee Architects’ Amnesia House in Napa Valley is a place for making memories