Awards:

Don’t Move, Improve! 2020 - Best Materiality and Craftsmanship

This flat refurbishment is situated in a former school building constructed in 1847 and was subsequently converted into a school in the early 21st century.

The two-storey property, conceived as a solid piece of joinery that is slotted into the original apartment volume, is formed from 30,000 individual blocks of oak. This impressive form consolidates all primary functions of the property into a single element. This in turn helps to celebrate the historic features of the host building within the double storey void, including windows, glazing and cornicing.

This existing art studio in Hoxton was artist Julian Opie’s HQ for almost 20 years and this extension and refurbishment allows the lifespan of the building to be significantly extended and for the workspace to be significantly enhanced.

The aluminium clad extension and integrated rooflights allow light to flow into the studio spaces and offer a sense of calm against the frenetic series of existing industrial buildings.

Awards:

Shortlisted RIBA House of the Year 2017

RIBA London Award 2017

Shortlisted AJ Awards

This new build house in Clerkenwell is located atop a series of listed vaults that were a prison in the 1700’s and is simultaneously overlooked by a large former school building that replaced this house of detention. Due to this restrictive context, this project sought most of its light and views from carefully crafted rooflights that forms an expressive ceiling element throughout. Views of the shared gardens can be attained through a large slim framed aluminium window – whose base is a bespoke concrete framed fireplace.

The property is clad in reclaimed London Stock brickwork that is intended be read as a continuation of the existing historic boundary wall of the old prison.

All joinery, doors and wall panelling are formed of oak and is intended to act as a datum that separates the floating form of the ceiling from the concrete floor plinth.   

The clients’ eleventh floor, two storey apartment with an early 2000’s building overlooking the Paddington Basin always felt like a resultant space. 

The challenge was to transform these two disparate levels into one connected whole. A concrete pier links both levels, forming a balustrade that wraps around a Dracaena tree the clients have owned for 21 years – a unique and personal experience within the property. 

Low internal doors and cramped floor to ceiling heights due to the ceiling mounted air conditioning units meant that the tenth floor felt smaller than it was. By utilising vertical air conditioning units and concealing these within joinery, the floor to ceiling heights were drastically improved.  To further enhance the connectivity across this level, full height, douglas fir doors were introduced, allowing the continuation of the floor and ceiling planes between rooms.

Bespoke matt black joinery replaces the tired kitchen units, enveloping the space. The removal of the island opens up the eleventh floor, giving the clients a dedicated dining area that was not previously possible.

Awards:

Shortlisted AJ Retrofit Awards 2016 – House under £500k

Located in Barnsbury Conservation Area, the existing configuration involved a one bed basement flat below a two storey house. The initial premise was to combine both together to form a larger property – however the key to the design was to connect the spaces internally, allowing the house to feel expansive rather than a series of disparate, disconnected spaces.

Dark, tobacco stained, sawn oak joinery are dispersed throughout the house, much like chess pieces on a white background. A large rooflight allows light into the kitchen and living spaces, while a portion of the first floor study has been removed to allow vertical connectivity and natural light to bounce and filter down a two storey void space.

This project near South Kensington involved the excavation of a new basement and front lightwell below the footprint of the existing building and a reconfiguration of the two floors above. Due to party wall restrictions, coupled with the narrow access road, the basement was dug by hand and involved extensive sequenced underpinning and shoring support.

A larch lined winder stair spans up through the proposal with a large rooflight to the roof, allowing light travel down to the both the ground and basement floors.

Awards:

Longlisted RIBA House of the Year 2016

RIBA London 2016 Award

New London Award – Homes 2016

Located down a tight mews in Bayswater, this 4 storey terraced property was extremely dark internally with a tight, awkward steel winder stair providing the only circulation.

The project involved essentially stripping out most of the internal fabric and installing a central bespoke staircase, around which pieces of joinery formed bedrooms and glass floors on each level allowed light to filter down from a rooflight to the lowest basement level.

As each floor was extremely tight for space, partitions were formed from lightweight translucent timber panels; an influence from Japanese architecture. Polished concrete floor finishes to the lower two levels creates a solidity to the base of the property and also forms the bespoke kitchen work surfaces.  

This house near Islington was updated throughout with new Douglas Fir surfaces and matching open tread Fir stairs seem to precauiously balance from hanging steel balustrading.

White lacquered MDF joinery to the bedrooms, kitchen and living areas enhance the light quality of the flooring with a bespoke concrete fireplace element forming the focal point of family life.  

This Bayswater apartment was completely reconfigured and updated to allow a maximum connection to light and a connection to both the outside and within the flat.

A minimal white theme ran throughout the property in kitchen joinery, bathroom tiling and wall finishes throughout. This was then occasionally contrasted with darker elements, such as walnut bookshelves and a black chimney surround.

This one bedroom property located in Notting Hill was reconfigured and updated with a contemporary dark matt kitchen joinery and marble finish with patterned oak flooring throughout.

The existing Victorian detail was refurbished with a new wet room installation.

This project involves a refurbishment of an existing detached property in Dulwich, South London.

The primary function of the project was to connect the living spaces with the rear garden – this was achieved via a large spanned opening with sliding doors that now makes the rear dining space feel like part of the garden.

Timber floors and joinery were updated throughout with contemporary stone tiling to the bathroom areas.

Awards:

Shortlisted Don’t Move Improve Awards 2014

The existing studio flat in Shoreditch was big enough to become quite an interesting one bedroom property, however this involved proposed individual spaces working together in an alternative way.

The key to maintaining the sense of scale in this project was the glass partition between the kitchen / circulation space and the bedroom – this glass had an inbuilt electrochromatic film that could switch from being transparent to opaque. This allowed privacy at night but allowed views across the whole property during the day.

To save space, the entry stair from below also becomes part of the stainless steel kitchen joinery element – with a glass floor allowing light into the circulation space below. Douglas Fir flooring throughout provides a lightness and textural relief against the ‘colder’ steel finishes.

This project involved the reconfiguration and refurbishment to a large flat in Mayfair. Existing cellular spaces within the existing property were opened up allowing the sense of scale to become apparent.

Dark Oak joinery to the bedroom and kitchen spaces contrasted against the lighter oak timber flooring throughout.

Awards:

Shortlisted Stephen Lawrence Prize 2016

RIBA London Award 2016

AJ Retrofit Awards 2015 – Best House Under £250k

A brick insert side extension unlocks the ground floor potential of this large Victorian terraced property. Existing internal and external rear walls were removed to create a large open plan space that connects directly with the garden space.

A large rooflight the length of the extension allows northlight to penetrate into the rear kitchen and living space, along with the existing terrace.

A polished concrete floor both internally and externally complements the London Stock brickwork that is similarly both inside and external. The contrast of European Oak & white lacquered MDF joinery complete the kitchen area, matching the new Oak flooring to the front of the ground floor.  

Awards:

AJ Retrofit Awards 2014 – Best House Under £300k

The existing two storey apartment atop a late-90’s residential block in Covent Garden was poorly laid out and quite dark internally. This project involved a strip out and reconfiguration, allowing more light into the property via a large rooflight (and also a glass floor to the kitchen allowing light into the dark entry hall below), coupled with a very large frameless window that overlooked the backs of the surrounding buildings.

The new bi-fold doors on facing the courtyard on both floors provided a direct connection to the outdoors when open. Basalt floor tiling throughout provided a beautiful contrast against the textured walnut joinery.

Cantilevered glass stair treads and handrail connect the two floors and allows light into the darkest parts of the property.

Located in Dulwich Village, this project involved the total refurbishment of the interior and exterior of the property. New custom made windows and rear doors along with repointing of brickwork and repair to existing roof tiles reinvigorated the external appearance of the property.

Internally, bespoke joinery and timber floors throughout complemented the changes in layout to beautifully consolidate the existing property.