"In 2009, I moved back to New York after a stint working at an architecture office in Rotterdam. While in Rotterdam, I grew to really appreciate the industrial architecture and openness in many of the neighborhoods there. When I got back to New York, I wanted to find a home where I could experiment with living space freely, and an open loft in Bushwick seemed like the perfect place. From the beginning, I knew that the space needed to be shared—this was a few years before Adam and I met—and I made many sketches and models of creative ways to divide the space without sacrificing the airiness and openness that I loved about the space. With the help of friends, I built two small structures in the loft: a 'cabin' or a house-shaped room; and a 'treehouse'—a lofted room with living space underneath. For three years, I had a series of roommates and then Airbnb guests staying in one of the rooms while I stayed in the other. Adam and I met in 2011, and we moved in together in 2012. We continued to Airbnb one room for the first couple of years of dating, which helped us be able to slowly build an art practice together. Now, with our daughter Tove, we have continued to evolve our home to be a fun, warm, and inspiring place to live for the three of us."

"Warm, textured, and raw, with a contemporary Japanese and Scandinavian influence. I like that it might feel as if we live in a treehouse cabin in a forest oasis in the middle of industrial Bushwick."

The peaceful cabin is where mom and dad sleep—and where story time is the coziest.

"Our home is a living thing, literally and metaphorically—it is constantly shifting as our needs and desires change. We probably renovate or reorganize some aspect of the home every few months. Since Adam and I have lived together, we’ve changed the functions of different areas many times; we’ve added shelving and storage, built furniture together for the home, renovated the treehouse interior for Tove, and have made hundreds of invisible touches that you might not even notice, such as music-playing and lighting improvements."

Terri wears an Enkyu jumpsuit. Tove wears a ZhuoYe Cottage t-shirt and hand-me-down pants.

"I tend not to use the word 'decorate' because it seems to imply something extra that is added for style. I try to think of the spaces and things we live with as somehow integral or essential to our environment. Our house plants live throughout the home within the architecture and furniture, creating different zones of habitation. They cast beautiful shadows at night. We try to keep the artwork in our home active; often when a work stays in the same place for too long, we stop 'seeing' it, and we’ll change it up. I like keeping objects around that I find beautiful, useful, fun, nice to hold, or inspiring—anything from a found stone to a beautiful bottle opener to a good book. Clutter is something that we are constantly filtering; sometimes when we collect something new, we may have to make room by removing something else."

"Tove’s room is the 'treehouse.' It’s a strange space with an unusual shape and a big sliding door. It’s lofted to create room for living both above and below. For years, it was my bedroom, and the structure was left fairly raw on the interior, with two-by-fours exposed and thin plywood sheeting nailed to the outside. We renovated it for Tove, and now the interior feels almost like a little ice cream parlor, with a book bar, little steps for sitting and reading, white wood-paneled walls, and soft rugs for sitting on the floor. There is a little window for looking out into the living room and waving to the people below."

"The living room is between the cabin and the treehouse. We like that this area might feel like a little clearing in a forest. It’s surrounded by plants and grounded by two colorful and cozy rugs. When Tove was coming into the world, we imagined spending a lot of time on the ground, and rugs became important pieces of furniture. Under the treehouse is a second living area that functions as a library and den. There is a daybed, a Tove-sized table with chairs, more books, and toys. This zone is often a cozy space for reading, drawing, and playing before dinner and with friends."

"So many things are things I really enjoy—I love our two living room rugs, our collection of objects near the whiskey bar, the little pink lamp, our dining table, our house plants, our book collection, our cup collection, the cabin, the treehouse, the orange sofa, our comfy bed…"

"Every area in our home seems to have some books or things for Tove to engage with. We try to tidy up after playing and at the end of every day."

"Fostering life seems like such a huge part of the human experience, and I am excited to grow from this experience. Being a parent has given me a greater connection to humanity and to other people who are parents."

"I am constantly aware of mortality in a greater way than I was before having a child."

"Since I was a child, I have believed strongly in raising children in a gender-neutral way. There is so much possibility in the world, and I am excited to try to give Tove as many options as possible to discover her own path."

In this house, it's never clear if the toys belong to the the kid or the grown-ups.

"Tove comes from the illustrator and author Tove Jansson, whose work we appreciate deeply. Her middle name, Yongxin, comes from a family naming tradition. My great grandfather was a poet in China, and he wrote a 16-word poem about a natural philosophy of life. Each generation names their child using a successive word in the poem. We are now on the fourth word, which is 'Yong' and means 'use or utility.' Yongxin means to use your heart, use your spiritual core, lead with love. Chiaozza is the combination of my last name (Chiao) and Adam’s last name (Frezza). It is also the name of our studio."

"Tove is 2. She loves water, stories, music, drawing, cats and dogs, edamame, and the color blue, to name a few things."

"I would not say I was particularly maternal growing up, partially because I hated the way girls were overly encouraged to play with life-like dolls and to take care of babies. However, I did understand that having a child seemed like it would open an enormous depth of human experience that I was very curious to be a part of."

"The pregnancy was okay, thank goodness! It was even kind of fun, in fact. At the end of the first trimester we drove across the country with our cat to spend the second trimester building an enormous acre-spanning sculpture installation for Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. We lived on a golf course in a desert resort community and went swimming every day after work. Several friends came out to join us throughout the three months we were there, and I even got boom-lift certified while pregnant, so that I could work on sculptures up high. By the end of the pregnancy I started getting so used to it that I could almost imagine being pregnant forever. Luckily that was not the case, and Tove came to join us."

"I took about two weeks to be at home with Tove, while Adam took care of installations around town. After about two weeks, I remember feeling like I needed to get out a bit, and I spent an afternoon cutting down wood at the studio. At around three weeks we started bringing Tove out and about with us more, and she started coming to the studio with us by about a month old. I remember thinking it would have been amazing to spend the first three or four months together as a family without any pressure of work, to fully appreciate the new-baby immersion, but I’m also happy that we got back to work right away, too."

"Friends were a valuable resource. A casual conversation with someone we met at an art opening led to me learning about hypnobirthing, which is a birthing method in which you 'breathe the baby down' and work with nature, gravity, movement, breathing, and visualization to aid birth. This made so much sense to me, and I ended up taking a hypnobirthing class, which was an invaluable resource to learn more about the birthing process. We also followed along on the What to Expect app, which continues to be insightful for someone who doesn’t know much about babies or toddlers."

"My own mother is an inspiration, of course. I love her honest and straightforward style. She is fun, creative, and reliable. I appreciate that I always felt supported and that I was trusted to be fairly independent. My friend Kathleen is also an inspiration. During pregnancy she was my main resource for learning about modern mom things; I appreciate her taste and her no-bullshit approach to life."

Pretty much the coolest table ever to hide underneath.

"My younger brother and I grew up in a suburb outside Atlanta. Both of our parents worked and we spent a lot of time playing together in the backyard, in the basement, or at after-school programs. We both had many activities. I played piano and violin, softball, karate, and went to Chinese school on Saturday mornings to learn Chinese. I had many different personal creative projects, like making friendship bracelets, painting objects in my room, building homes and villages for Legos or trolls, drawing oceanic landscapes, etc. We often had family friends over to make pizza or dumplings or for play dates. We also had the opportunity to travel a lot as a family; to Europe for my dad’s work, to Taiwan to visit extended family, and around the U.S. to visit national parks and other family."

Terri wears Levi’s pants and a Dusen Dusen denim sweatshirt.

A little silliness everywhere.

"I try to set up a safe and inspiring environment for Tove, and I like to give her a fair amount of freedom within that environment. This helps put us all at ease and we can be more relaxed while also having fun. I try to explain things when I can so that she understands, and I try not to force her to do anything, in hopes that she will make her own decisions for herself and learn from her choices."

Scenes from Chiaozza's last Coachella install, when Terri was pregnant with Tove.

"This is a big question. On a very basic level, I feel that we have a huge responsibility to raise our children to love, appreciate, and respect our environment, which includes everything and everyone that exists in the world."

"Hold the awareness that anything can happen, good or bad, and try to visualize the positive. Do not rest on the negative."

A tot-scaled space for reading and creating.

"Not at the moment."

"I am an artist and designer. My partner and I have a studio called CHIAOZZA—rhymes with 'wowza.' We make sculptures, wall works, installations, public art, works on paper, design objects, and many other fun things."

"I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta. I studied Art History and Architectural Studies at Brown University, and I went to graduate school for architecture at Columbia University. While I was in grad school, I spent a summer working in Tokyo making architectural models at an inspiring office called Atelier Bow-Wow. My first job out of grad school was at an architecture office in Rotterdam. Then the economy crashed and Obama was elected, and I was excited to come back to the U.S., where I worked at a really wonderful multi-disciplinary design firm called 2x4. After a year or two, I felt like I needed to figure some things out for myself, creatively, and left the office to try to discover what it might mean to be an artist. I spent a lot of time watering my house plants, working on house projects, and making sketches of treehouses and cabins. Adam and I met around then, and we slowly realized that we could work together creatively, and a meandering practice emerged from us getting to know each other."

"Our studio practice is founded on the idea that play is a creative tool for collaboration, communication, exploration, learning, and growth. I have always wanted to explore making books, toys, and games, and perhaps now is finally the time to delve deeper into these dreams."

"Tove comes to work with us every day. She has several spots at the studio, including a reading loft, a craft station, a flat file, a sand box, and a water table. I love that we can spend our time together every day. Some days it’s hard to get as much work done as we might need to, but it’s always worth spending the time with her."

"My partner Adam and I spend all our time together, with Tove, and the three of us are a strong unit flowing together day to day. Our families are very supportive from a distance and they make time to see Tove and us—or we, them—about once a quarter. Tove’s godparents live in Brooklyn and are an incredible support, as well as many of our good friends, many of whom have children, in the city."

Terri wears Enkyu pants and an Ilana Kohn tank top. Tove wears a t-shirt and purple tights from Primary.

"It’s important to learn when and how to ask for—and accept—help. I’m still learning!"

The best view in the house is from Tove's treehouse bedroom.

"We have a strong community in New York, from great friends from many walks of life, to an inspiring art/design community. We have yet to delve into schooling or daycare, and we imagine a whole new world will open up with this adventure."

"At the moment, New York feels like the right place for us. We often fantasize about being closer to nature in some way, somewhere, even in a part-time kind of way. For the moment we try to make time for outdoor adventures as much as possible."

Tove's furry nap buddy.

"For day and weekend trips, we find ourselves on the North Fork, a beautiful farm and beach community on eastern Long Island, and upstate in the Catskills. This week we will spend an afternoon exploring Central Park for the yearly celebration of my birthday."

"Just have fun with it. What a special opportunity it is to spend time as a family altogether in a different place."

"Because we are together all day at the studio, I am often working when Tove wants attention. I try to listen and spend time with her when she needs or wants it. Sometimes it involves a fair amount of creativity to think of ways to engage her, to set her up to engage herself, or to make time for engaging with other people."

Terri wears a Woolrich jacket. Tove wears a The North Face jacket and Native boots.

A fall walk with mama.

"I hope to be a good role model for Tove. Children model behavior from people around them, and I would like to instill in her respect for all things, including our environment, our loved ones and others around us, for work, and for ourselves."

Terri and Tove take on the town.

"Structured yet comfortable."

"I have to wear shirts that are conducive to breastfeeding. For the moment, no more jumpsuits that zip in the back, for instance!"

Inside Chiaozza's nearby art studio.

"I tend to have a uniform each season. Currently it’s dark-blue, high-waisted, wide-leg pants with large side pockets by Enkyu, a gray tank top by Ilana Kohn, a canvas jacket with large blue pockets and black collar by Dusen Dusen, fun socks by Hansel from Basel, and black Nikes to keep me buoyant. For fun times, I also love my pink jumpsuit from Rachel Comey."

"Cold water on the face and some face lotion. Some days I will put on the tiniest bit of eyeliner. Occasionally I have my eyebrows threaded, which I find opens up and brightens the face in a simple and natural way."

"I build my spiritual wellness by immersing myself in nature when possible. Sometimes this is a long hike in a beautiful setting—the mountains, forests, along a coast—or floating on my back in a body of water and looking at the sky, or laying on a warm rock in the sun for a few moments. This charges me and makes me feel refreshed and renewed."

A special place for Tove.

"A long hot shower is a wonderful thing."

"Make lots of time for friends."

For more an this artistic family, be sure to follow them on Instagram.