Spacecraft was started in New York City in 1999 by Elaine Didyk, helping clients inhabit modestly-scaled spaces thoughtfully. She found spatial opportunities everywhere: creating multi-use rooms and furniture, carving out window seats and reading nooks, and designing efficient and beautiful storage solutions in tight places.
In 2008 she moved to Los Angeles, where she met Sara Noyes and they immediately began cracking each other up. Sara was working in film production but wanted a change. Elaine’s brain was tired of juggling schedules and estimates whilst trying to visualize 3-dimensional space. Eventually talk turned to design, a plan was formed, and Sara jumped on board Spacecraft bringing her incredible producing skills with her.
Spacecraft specializes in renovating and remodeling architecturally interesting homes and spaces in a way that creates a dialogue between the old and new. Our ‘warm modernism’ is inspired by, and responds to, the playfulness and pragmatism of LA’s midcentury designers but also takes into consideration our client’s needs and personalities.
We reconsider materials, spatial configurations, and siting with an eye to integrating modern technology and contemporary ideals about how people want to live with the beauty and soulfulness of the existing building. We let every material do what it does best, using both reclaimed and new materials and fixtures to create compelling spaces, and love working with people to create homes that reflect who they and reframe their lives in a new way.
Sara spent her early years in the beautiful landscapes of New Mexico and Marin County. After getting her degree in Political Science from Colorado College, Sara worked as a line producer in the film industry in San Francisco and Seattle and learned the valuable skills of intense project (and personality) management in the production world. After a few years of working in production in Los Angeles, her eye turned toward design, something that had always interested her. The more she learned about the construction industry, the more parallels she saw between the process of design and filmmaking. She applies the efficiencies and collaboration she learned in film production to design and construction.
Elaine Didyk
Born and raised in Southwestern Ontario, Elaine has an undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Toronto, and a graduate degree in architecture from Columbia University. She has worked in offices in Canada, Germany, The Netherlands,and the United States. While working for MVRDV in Rotterdam, Elaine became interested in the way the Dutch could both efficiently stack housing and still create spaces that were ‘gezellig’ -a basically untranslatable word that describes the Dutch concept of coziness and togetherness. Elaine has taught design at the University of British Columbia, The Berlage Institute, and Columbia University.