—testimonials

We met Aya from ALAO when we started thinking about the possibility of renovating a townhouse in Bed Stuy. Our first conversation was a simple, short exchange about music, art and architecture that prompted an in-person meeting, which immediately led to a discussion about our needs. Our tastes aligned as did our personalities. Aya and her firm delivered in every way we had hoped in terms of function, aesthetics and budget. Aya and her team were hands-on during the construction process and made us feel protected and taken care of. They gave us a degree of attention that surpassed our expectations, and when the project was finished, we ended up with a home that we immediately fell in love with. Moreover, we were so happy with ALAO that we hired them for our next project, a much more extensive gut renovation of a historic brownstone. We know we’re going to end up with a spectacular home.

The work James, Aya and their caring team do is nothing short of magic. They shape reality on both the profoundest and humblest levels—by giving form and substance to ideas that wouldn’t otherwise exist on this material plane, by plotting the path a square of sunlight takes across a wooden floor. I feel at home in the space they designed and furnished in a way that’s new to me. Plus, I couldn’t have asked for kinder, more pleasant people to work with. And the abode is equal parts comfortable and museum-caliber beautiful. It’s a joy to live inside their creation.

The conceptual and design portion of the project was exciting and very educational, because of Aya’s expert guidance and creativity. She helped us figure out what needed and what we really wanted. Despite the passionate and inspired creative energy Aya brings to her work, we never felt as if this had become her project: we felt WE were the ones deciding and designing. Aya and her team’s wonderful design and work made it possible for us to go from limiting and adjusting ourselves to what was available and possible in the house we had lived in for decades, to living in our dream home, designed with our means, interests, tastes and needs in mind. We now love and enjoy our dream home more than ever. Not surprisingly, our daughters also visit and want to stay with us more than ever.

We call the house “The Fun House” where the kids prefer to be over our main house.

ALAO designed A 50,000 square foot affordable arts and arts business production space located in the Brooklyn Army Terminal. ArtBuilt Brooklyn aggregates production space and long term studio spaces for small producers and artists. “ALAO creates spaces that make people feel rooted to a place.”