Before & After: A Brooklyn Couple’s Dim, Sequestered Kitchen Becomes a Luminous Gathering Space

Over two decades ago, when Rodrigo Kong and Yoko Matsumoto-Kong first settled into their townhouse in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, they were irked by the garden-level location of the kitchen.

"It was disappointing from the very beginning," recalls Rodrigo, an emergency room physician and medical director. "There were two windows for the space, but they were far away in the front of the apartment, leaving the kitchen dark. It was small. Despite this, the kitchen was in the middle of everything—literally and figuratively—and that made it work for that stage of our lives."

But in more recent years, this less-than-ideal placement of the kitchen grew more bothersome. The parlor floor, just above it, is where daily life unfolds for the Kongs, now the parents of a teenage daughter. Eager to forge a connection between these disparate realms, the Kongs turned to the local architectural practice Suzumori Architecture and Jersey City, New Jersey–based Behin Ha Design Studio for their expertise.

"We try to resist jumping to a conclusion before we’ve had time to study a problem and have a period of open design exploration," says Behrang Behin, principal at Behin Ha Design Studio. "One thing we did know from the start was that the house had great bones, which we could work with."

With its high ceilings and intricate details, the parlor is certainly the star of the home, where the family entertains guests and daily life plays out. Rodrigo, for instance, a sensei of the Japanese martial art Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu, likes to perform his moves in the living room, where his daughter also enjoys practicing ballet. Yoko, an artist, is equally buoyed by painting in the parlor.

The design team considered dividing up the main living space and introducing a small, spiral staircase to unite the two floors, but ultimately, they took a different tack—converting the parlor’s rear extension, then used as a guest bedroom, into the kitchen to create a flexible, open plan.