Cool New York loft

With four young children and hectic work lives, Hanne Larsen and Angus Dobbie aren't the kind of people to hang around. So when they first clapped eyes on their family-sized apartment in buzzing Tribeca, in downtown Manhattan, they snapped it up in minutes – even though it was the first property they'd seen.

It may have seemed like an impulsive gesture, but Hanne and her banker husband, Angus, who moved to New York from their native Australia three years ago, had a very clear picture of what they were looking for. 'We wanted a space with good natural light and a sense of openness. Perhaps we were yearning for Australia,' says Hanne, who runs a dance school.

However, open plan and tiny children don't always mix. 'We knew we wanted some closed-off spaces, so the children could sleep and we could entertain simultaneously, but none of the existing walls actually reached the ceiling,' recalls Hanne. There were other, more worrying concerns. 'Most of the lighting consisted of electrical cords wrapped around pipes with fixtures hanging from them. Plus, there was a window on a level with the bath that I could just see the children falling out of...'

The only realistic solution for the couple was to rip everything out and start again. They moved into rented accommodation with India, now eight, Atticus, six, and Arlo, four, for nine months while their builders moved in.

But it was worth the wait. The apartment now functions beautifully as a family home. Take a room-by-room tour around Hanne and Angus's stylish New York loft