What's It Really Like to Live in the Penthouse? 9 Spectacular Spaces, From Tribeca to São Paulo, That Bring a New Perspective to High-Rise Living
In excerpts from gestalten's book 'Penthouse Syndrome', these inspiring spaces redefine what it means to design a home "where exposure and privacy are in constant conversation"
There's no denying the allure of a 'home in the sky'. A penthouse — renowned as an exclusive, luxurious residence on a building's top floor — is both intrinsically linked to its surroundings and serves as a cocooning retreat from them, especially amid the bustle of a busy city. A framed view, a moving work of art, a life among the clouds.
Whether a full-floor space, a duplex, or a triplex, these premium modern homes offer a breadth of creativity in design, from restrained to eclectic, and gestalten's latest book, Penthouse Syndrome: Interiors Above the City, displays an array of breathtaking properties from Tribeca to São Paulo that offer a fresh take on elevated living, literally and figuratively.
From maximizing space and light to harnessing the beauty of the intersection between exterior and interior worlds, these nine penthouses are my favorites from the book, offering a snapshot of the wealth of design in this collection of truly showstopping properties, whether you're looking for inspiration for your own or want a taste of what the high life might look like.
gestalten's collection of penthouses explores what it means to live 'at height', offering a glimpse into premium living and design, where perspective and intimacy take on a new meaning.
1. A Stunning Departure From the Day-to-Day
Tribeca Penthouse — Hines Collective — New York
Set almost 80 stories high in the sky, this sculptural home is in constant conversation with its exterior surroundings, which is emphasized by these interior window walls that both separate spaces and create fluidity between them, while also mirroring the exterior windows — collectively looking inward and outward.
Throughout the apartment, rather than providing rooms for living, working, and entertaining, the design has crafted distinct emotional atmospheres — from the dark, enveloping “vampire speakeasy” media room to the serene, ethereal primary bedroom. Architectural elements and bespoke finishes blur the line between art and architecture, making the home feel less like a typical residence and more like a lived-in work of curated artistry.
2. A Measured Relationship Between Inside and Out
Penthouse PH8 — 5 Sólidos — Medellín, Colombia
Located on the top two floors of a mid-century residential block, this penthouse channels 1980s luxury apartment living, with walnut enveloping each floor with warmth and texture, while bold flooring creates a wonderful contrast in design.
The effect of this measured relationship between inside and out keeps the apartment feeling urban but contained, more cinematic stage set than lookout tower. Life here is less about spectacle and more about atmosphere: a layered composition of wood, stone, glass, and light, yielding a residence both luxurious and intimate, an inward-looking retreat that elevates the rituals of urban living above the restless city beyond its walls.
3. A Vibrant and Unconventional Kreuzberg Marvel
Chroma Penthouse — Studio Bosko — Berlin, Germany
Zoning with color is a wonderful way to create pockets of intimacy in an otherwise open space, as this vibrant design shows. The colors (and materials) were also partially dictated by one of the inhabitants' daltonism (color vision deficiency), adapting to his range of perception, making it an altogether more personal space.
Studio Bosko used bold primary color zones to anchor daily rituals within the open-plan apartment: yellow for the kitchen’s energy, red for communal dining, and green for relaxed living. Every element — custom fittings, layered lighting, iconic and offbeat furniture — was curated to reflect the inhabitants’ personalities and to support their lifestyle. The result is a dwelling that subverts the traditional neutral-coded idea of a “calm” home, showing instead that domesticity can be vibrant and unconventional, and that color can be both functional and emotional.
4. Dynamic, Collaborative, and Deeply Personal
Superlofts Houthavens Plot 1 — Marc Koehler Associates — Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A feast for the eyes, this modern penthouse — architect Mark Koehler's own home — is dramatically open, with a suspended mezzanine that creates an extra floor without interrupting the openness, flooded with light, and endlessly flexible.
One of 70 units within the building’s wider structure, life here feels dynamic, collaborative, and deeply personal, less about conforming to a standard and more about shaping one’s own idiosyncratic way of life within a larger interconnected system. According to Koehler, “In designing and living here, we’ve created more than just a home: it’s a living lab for how architecture can grow with us, build community, and remain sustainable over time."
5. A Village in the Heart of the City
The Village — Gisbert Pöppler — Berlin, Germany
The deep purple-blue ceilings, paired with the red lacquer wall and light oak wood flooring, create a wonderful contrast and vibrant warmth in the home, making it feel cozy, intimate, and thoroughly contemporary.
The apartment features windows on three sides and is surrounded by outdoor decking with views across Berlin’s streets and the Alexanderplatz skyline. Back inside the apartment, the walls, cupboards, cornice, and baseboard follow a strict pattern of recurring grooves and lines that establish the heights of doors, cupboards, and worktops — an echo, perhaps, of the urban grid just outside, and a reminder that, although the apartment has the feel of a discreet, self-contained village, it is still part of a metropolis.
6. A Life Shaped By Light, Curves and Curated Views
Whitlam Place — Freadman White & Anon Studio — Melbourne, Australia
Designing and decorating with circles and curves, as seen in this penthouse, shapes the feel of the space, adding softness and depth to the design while also bringing the outdoors in, literally. The gorgeous oculus skylight also shifts from aubergine to apricot with the changing light over the course of the day — dreamy.
The focus is the living area, in which a wall of curved glass wraps around a private rooftop courtyard, itself screened by the silvery foliage of the eucalyptus trees lining the park. When the sliding doors are open, this outdoor space expands an already generous living area, eliminating any remaining boundaries and extending the living space into the open air. The styling of the apartment prioritizes the experience of living within its walls, yet the architecture is focused on the inhabitants’ experience of the outside.
7. The Dance of Preservation and Origination
OR23 — Estudio Reciente — Madrid, Spain
Featuring side enclosures and brise soleil, this mid-century modern home is visually and physically connected to the city, speaking to Madrid's history while designed for contemporary living.
The building itself dates to the 1960s, with the penthouse occupying a prized corner position. In reconfiguring the space for contemporary living, Estudio Reciente established one clear intention: not to erase the apartment’s past or its place in the city, but to amplify it. They retained many of the original materials and finishes, grounding the home in its historical context, while their new interventions have helped to create a refreshed, open environment.
8. Building Atop a Home in the Heart of Berlin
Zander Rooftop — Studio Bosko — Berlin, Germany
Once an unused attic space, now a modern home with a richly layered aesthetic filled with multiple materials and textures adding depth and visual interest as well as an inherently cozy feel.
“Vast open spaces with lots of visual openness often have an effect of generic coldness,” explains Kronberger. A diverse choice of materials and textures, in close conversation with the materiality of the surrounding buildings, contributes great warmth and personality despite the apartment’s uncommonly high ceilings. All in all, this is a space that feels elegant, lived-in, and flexible: a place where cooking with kids, hosting friends, working from home, and finding quiet pockets for reading can coexist without conflict.
9. An Exercise in Spatial, Material, and Visual Continuity
Zagal Loft — Arquitectura Tangible — Medellín, Colombia
Framing views of the Andes Mountains, this biophilic design creates a series of connections between nature, the floors above, and the surrounding spaces in the home, with no internal doors or walls — the bedroom and study were placed on the top floor for privacy.
Throughout, a soft, warm palette combines with the lush green vegetation to echo the colors of the city landscape and the mountains beyond. The Zagal Loft ultimately redefines the duplex not as a stack of separate levels but as one continuous living space. By weaving together landscape views, an open plan, natural textures, and a strong material coherence, the architects have created a home where city and mountain, private and social, structural and natural, all converge into a unified whole.
Despite their altitude, these penthouses are deeply grounded in design and are a masterclass in crafting interiors that are physically and emotionally connected, indoors and out. To see the penthouses in all their glory, plus the many more included in the collection, order your own copy of Penthouse Syndrome: Interiors Above the City on Amazon, or directly at gestalten.
And if you like these penthouses, then you'll love this 5,000-square-foot pre-war penthouse in NY's Upper West Side, which had custom furniture craned in over Manhattan.
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