As their ground-floor Victorian flat comes to the market, Robbie de Santos and Pete Biggs reflect on transforming their home into a series of considered, material-driven spaces that allow them to engage in life’s simple pleasures (and which picked them up the overall winner award of New London Architectures ‘Dont Move Improve competition in 2017). Read on to hear how they made space for a sunken Japanese bath and a larger kitchen-diner, and what impact adding wildflowers and a vegetable patch have had on their enjoyment of the south-facing garden. Check out the sales listing here.Robbie: “For us, modern living is about enjoying the every day and taking joy from being at home, whether thats while cooking, cleaning, resting or bathing. We live in a stressful and uncertain time, so embracing and enjoying the simple things is all the more important.” Pete: “When we first saw this place, we thought, ‘It’s perfect’. It was a large one bedroom flat with a south-facing garden, which was exactly what we were after. It was structurally sound but in need of some love, so it gave us the blank canvas we wanted to make some quick improvements before planning something more transformative.
“We worked with Gary at Studio 304 to completely reorientate the rear of the house, turning a dark warren of cupboards and tiny hallways into an open, flowing space filled with light. The bathroom blocked all of the light from the sunny southern end of the house, and the kitchen faced into the shady side return. Swapping the two was crucial so that the spaces we used the most had the most light. “We also removed a wall in the living room to improve the connection between the two main living spaces, and renovated the cellar, which accommodates a large hot water tank for the bath and the washing machine as well as storage, a workshop and other utilitarian functions, keeping the main part of the house on the ground floor free of clutter. We also moved the boiler into a dedicated outside cupboard to the rear of the kitchen, freeing up cupboard space and keeping the kitchen as a dedicated space for cooking and entertaining.” Robbie: “Now, the flat is characterised by efficient, thoughtful use of space, but the really unique feature is that it has a sunken Japanese bath, or furo, housed in a glass box which protrudes into the side return. It faces on to mature bamboo and is surrounded by Japanese gravel, with a slatted larch screen over the glass box to maintain privacy when bathing.” Pete: “Our approach to materials was inspired by the Schindler House in Los Angeles, which we visited in 2013. It has a really simple palette of innovative materials, with a raw concrete cast bath and sink in the bathroom and slit windows which let light into the space without it feeling harsh.
“So, in the bathrooms we have a grey microcement on the walls and in the bath and the walk-in shower. It allowed us to achieve a similar aesthetic to the Schindler House, but with a more practical, modern and waterproof material. We used unlacquered brass taps and fittings in both bathrooms, which have also weathered beautifully.” Robbie: “An architect friend of a friend then recommended that we read In Praise of Shadows, an essay on Japanese aesthetics by Junichirō Tanizaki. This really got us thinking differently about materials and about embracing signs of ageing and weathering as a testimony to the life lived in a space. “In the kitchen we have a dramatic copper worktop and splashback, which develops a richer patina with every use and is incredibly practical, being impervious to stains and naturally antimicrobial. It is complemented by more larch slats which have been preserved using the ancient Japanese shou sugi ban technique of burning and oiling wood. The polished concrete floor is a light colour and we embrace the cracks, scrapes and swirls in the concrete mix.” Pete: “The work completely changed our lives in this space. It’s made every part of the flat a joy to be in. We only added a few square feet with the work, but the project made every inch of space work for the way we live today – there is not a single spot of dead space. It means we have a range of high-quality separate living spaces, inside and outside, which is not something you can usually say for a Victorian conversion.”
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发表于 2020-11-4 19:36:12
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