Mexican Design Studio ATRA FORM Frames its New York Outpost as a Multisensorial Experience

With immersive, often transportative, displays standing out at major events like Design Miami, architecture studio and design producer ATRA has long championed that all-so-Mexican of propositions: harnessing a long-established, rich and diverse culture of craft—as well as an expansive suite of rare, natural materials—and translating it into precision-engineered spaces and furnishings. The results tend to be a cohesive meddling of ancient and otherworldly; concepts that seem to have been extracted from a different, more fantastical yet still somewhat familiar timeline.

When it came to opening its new gallery in New York City’s Hudson Square neighborhood, ATRA’s approach was the same. The subduedly cast, yet richly textured space unfolds as a series of open plan vignettes, unified by a single dark soil-toned toned carpet. There’s a mystical, certainly monastic, vibe here, far cry from the crowded, noise ridden street outside. The essentialized forms of the displayed designs tie everything together.

On view are distinctive ATRA FORM furnishings such as the fiber glass-cast Pyramid Chair designed in partnership with art world heavyweight Pedro Reyes, the celestially inspired Chronos Hanging Vertical Light Sculpture, and monumental Margot sofa (rendered in an especially tactile long-haired Mongolian sheep fur). The pared back concepts—a distillation of both intuition and structure, chaos and control—are meant to be spatial interventions; part of larger architectural systems. Brought together here in complementary stagings, the boutique producer is able to show its full range, and more intimately engage with collectors.

“This gallery allows us to explore where design, architecture, and holistic practice intersect,” says Alexander Díaz Andersson, founder and creative director of ATRA. “It provides a space to test ideas, observe how visitors engage with objects and space, and gather insights that will inform our future projects.”

As revealed during last December’s Design Miami fair, many of the sofas, armchairs, and lounge chairs can now be equipped with VLS technology tool Morphus. The embedded biohacking system monitors its user’s vitals, as well as their stress levels, and responds in kind with a carefully calibrated sequence of vibration, sound and light—filtering in through adjoining goggles—to bring them into and out of states of relaxation and meditation. The rear of the gallery has been set up to facilitate these sessions, allowing especially busy New Yorkers—visiting ATRA for a potential purchase—to also engage in a much needed therapy session. The wellness trend—mostly centered on an ever saturated landscape of urban sauna concepts—has expanded.