“STEAMPUNK=Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man/baroque stylings) x (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot.” Jeff Vandermeer, Steampunk Bible.

As a boy in suburban Long Island, Jeremy Noritz was fascinated with planes and dirigibles. Five years ago, when the filmmaker bought a two-bedroom apartment in the Chelsea section of New York his imagination took flight.

Zeppelins are the overarching theme of the 1,875 square-foot loft. A submarine door at the entrance leads to an open space, where a 32-foot-long Zeppelin hovers, glowing violet, amber, turquoise. Beyond, the bedroom is the site of a “wrecked” Zeppelin. Here, a

Murphy bed is raised and lowered by a deactivated bomb on a pulley, activated by a skateboard; a photo of the Hindenburg hangs on the wall. Elsewhere, miniature planes hang from the ceiling, hand wrenches serve as cabinet handles, huge wooden casts double as tables, and early gas station signs brighten a bathroom.

Noritz found pieces in metal foundries, antique shops and on the Internet. “It was his passion,” says Parul Brahmbhatt, an agent at Core real estate, who describes the overall effect as “Jules Verne meets Tim Burton.” Add Baron Munchausen, and you have it.

Photos by Richard Caplan