Creating art can often feel like an isolating experience, but [Tangerine House](https://www.instagram.com/tangerine.house/) is looking to change that. A co-living space for creatives founded in 2018, Tangerine House offers not only a place to live, but also studio space to its diverse occupants whose mediums range from music, to photography, to fashion design and beyond.
Established by childhood friends Samuel Kaplan and Sean Smith, Tangerine House’s only residencies are in Bushwick, Brooklyn…for now. However, don’t let their size fool you: Tangerine House has had quite a successful inaugural year. The team has already had a collaborative event at SXSW, has an average of 40 applicants per vacancy, and is looking to further expand to cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles.
_FLAUNT_ got the opportunity to chat with the minds behind Tangerine House. Check it out below:
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**Can you give me some background on how you decided to start Tangerine House?**
Sam: I was working at a talent agency and felt far away from people actually creating things. After work, I started going to these events Kidsuper was throwing in an empty store. The dude built a wooden stage from scratch and started bringing people together for live concerts/comedy shows on Canal Street—he just did it, no sign off, just like I’m gonna build a stage and start hosting people on it. Seeing that, feeling the energy at a Treble Tuesday (an awesome event series bringing together all types of creatives), seeing the Brockhampton guys build out of their LA house were all foundational to starting Tangerine House: I saw people building without permission and saw how important physical space was for creatives, especially in today’s digital world. So I left my job and asked my friend Sean—whom I’ve known since kindergarten—who had left his 9-5 to produce and write music full time, if he would move his recording studio to the basement of a house/apartment in Bushwick and start a space where artists could live and work out of. He agreed. We both broke our leases, put up a Craigslist ad for an “Artist House”, got rejected from a bunch of places and truly a day before our leases were going to end got approved for what is now our original space. The next day we moved in with four other strangers to start Tangerine House.
**What are some challenges you’ve faced while trying to get off the ground?**
Sean: Building the spaces on a budget has been difficult. We’ve all spent a lot of hours building indoor and outdoor furniture for the house and seeking furniture deals to create an interior design on a budget. Hosting events and creating content on a budget has also been difficult, but with the help of residents and everyone else a part of our community, Tangerine House has been able to pull together 200-person events, host monthly live recording sessions in Manhattan and film a mobile recording studio miniseries in the “Tangerine Van”, all while maintaining the co-living infrastructure.
**What has been your biggest defining moment thus far?**
Sean: Hosting a pop-up house (alongside [Treble.fm](https://www.treble.fm)) for SXSW with around 20 artists, music studio, was the biggest splash we have made so far. However, the most defining moment was likely when we launched the application portal for upcoming room vacancies and received over 200 applications. Hopefully in the near future Tangerine House will have enough rooms to provide the right accommodation for everyone on the waitlist.
Sam: I remember coming home one day and going out to the backyard and seeing a bunch of different residents (who were total strangers a month or two before) working together on a photo shoot. Matthew LeJune was filming Siimba Selassiie, a music artist, and Forrest Smith was taking pictures of the whole thing. They were using a bed sheet as a backdrop. ILY, another musical artist who lives in the house, was using her hands to help create the shot with Siimba. One of the shots from that shoot is going to be album cover for Siimba’s next project. Its moments like these that have been the most defining for me so far.
**How many people live in the space?**
Sam: We currently have 14 residents across two duplex apartments in Bushwick.
**Out of your applicants, how do you determine who is the best fit to live in the space?**
Sean: Most of our decisions have been based on word of mouth and references. Many of the future residents also tend to come to our events and hang around the house quite a bit so we get to know people fairly well before offering them a space.
**Do you see a leaning towards any type of creative renting the space or is it pretty evenly mixed?**
Sam: We have all types of artists living in both houses, including a visual artist, photographers/videographers, recording artists and music producers. It’s really important for us we get all types of artists living in the space as that’s when collaboration and the sharing of ideas/perspectives really happens.
**Tell me a bit about your time spent at SXSW?**
Sean: SXSW was our first large collaborative effort with Treble.fm. We sourced a massive house in Austin and set up a pop up recording studio, in collaboration with NYC based Off Record Studios. We provided housing for artists and teams, including Taylor Bennett, IDK, Supah Mario, and many others. Much like the Tangerine Houses in Brooklyn, the pop-up house in Austin developed its own organic community, with backyard concerts, impromptu recording sessions in the studios and spontaneous visits from all types of artists, groups, creatives large (Noisey showed up to film a freestyle session on the balcony). Seeing our residents and friends perform at the Empire Garage during Treble’s showcase was a beautiful moment.
**Do you have any plans to expand to other cities?**
Sam: 100%—we are currently in talks to open/develop our third property: a full building in Bushwick Brooklyn! We are also working hard to open up spaces in LA, Atlanta, and Chicago and hope eventually to have Tangerine Houses all around the world.
**What do you look for when scouting out new locations?**
Sean: When creating an environment for artists to live and work in, it’s incredibly important to seek out neighborhoods where other artists live. So neighborhood is a high priority, along with the actual physical space, which needs to have the right mix of comfortable living and proper workspaces.
**How have you seen your tenants thrive while at Tangerine House? What have they accomplished thanks to living in a space dedicated to creativity?**
Sam: Tangerine House residents have unique access to recording studio time, the ability to tap the community for projects and have met collaborators that they never would have imagined working with in the past. Full bands have come together and performed shows after meeting in the studio at Tangerine House, residents have collaborated on dozens of songs, hosted photo and video shoots together, thrown after parties for sold out concerts, recorded entire albums in the studio, worn each other’s custom designed bags on a European tour and designed merchandise and cover art for each other. Most importantly—and as cheesy as it might sound—people have actually made real friends with others they might not have ever met, and that really is an awesome thing.
