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      Threefold Architects unveils a model for post-Covid co-working

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      Threefold Architects has completed Paddington Works, a co-working and events space in London that was designed around wellness principles.Paddington Works combines a mix of spaces that include private studios, shared co-working spaces, meeting rooms and a multi-purpose auditorium, all arranged over two storeys.

      Paddington Works includes a mix of private studios and shared workspaces
      Workspaces are designed to be agile, providing different spaces to suit various activities. There are also a range of health-conscious building services, such as fresh air filtration and adaptive lighting systems.
      At a time when many co-working offices are trying to adjust to the changes in work habits prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, this project offers a model for the future of shared workspaces.

      Wellness principles influenced the layout, material choices and building systems

      “I think co-working spaces could thrive if they adapt following the pandemic,” said Matt Driscoll, one of the three co-founders of Threefold Architects.
      “So much time spent working at home has brought into sharp focus the simple things we take for granted that are vital to our wellbeing,” he told Dezeen.
      “A moment to gaze out the window, an escape from Zoom for a walk in the park, impromptu chats with our neighbours; we will attribute far greater importance to these small things.”

      Spaces incorporate fresh air filtration and adaptive lighting systems
      Paddington Works builds on Threefold’s research into how incorporating wellness principles into architecture can create healthier and happier environments, which has previously fed into workspace designs for Airbnb and Pocket Living.
      These principles were central to the design brief, even though Paddington Works was designed long before the pandemic.

      Threefold Architects completes Airbnb’s latest London office

      The air circulation system, which includes anti-viral filtration, is designed to bring 25 per cent more fresh air into the building than is typical.
      Meanwhile the lighting system uses intelligent LEDs to adjust the colour temperature of the light throughout the day, to suit circadian rhythms.

      The workspaces are divided into clusters
      The layout of the interior, organised over two storeys, was also designed with occupants in mind. Spaces are divided up into clusters to allow small communities to form within the building.
      Each cluster has its meeting rooms and breakout spaces, organised around a kitchen and social space.
      “I think many of the principles of wellness are intuitive to architects – providing good natural light, visual amenity, excellent acoustics, and air quality,” said Drisscoll.

      Each cluster has its own meeting rooms and breakout spaces
      “Beyond how the spaces feel, we are also interested in how they will be used and how people move around them and interact with each other,” he continued.
      “There should be quiet places to be alone, vibrant places to collaborate, and everything in between. We’ve always put generous social spaces at the heart of our schemes, for people to come together in their downtime, spaces to support, create and promote a culture within a business.”

      A flexible auditorium can be used for both events and casual working
      At the heart of the scheme is a flexible auditorium, designed as a huge set of wooden steps. The space can be used to host lectures, screenings and presentations, but it can also be a day-to-day informal work or meeting space.
      Each step incorporates a series of pull-out “drawer desks”, which can be used for laptops or notebooks. There are also power points for charging devices.
      “It doubles as a staircase between the levels and becomes a type of forum, a public space within the building,” explained Drisscoll.

      The materials palette includes rough-sawn oak and terrazzo
      The materials palette responds to the industrial heritage of the Paddington Basin area, with steel fabrications that recall the structure of the Brunel-designed train station. These are paired with textural materials like rough-sawn oak and terrazzo.
      Many of the industrial elements of the design are concealed, for instance, perforated metal screens cover the air filtration units.

      Steel fabrications reference the area’s industrial heritage
      Paddington Works is a joint venture between co-working operator Space Paddington and Westminster Council, aimed at startups in the creative and technology industries.
      As a result of its wellness-focused design, the building was able to adopt social distancing and hygiene measures brought in by the pandemic. Contactless hand sanitisers and anti-microbial fittings were among features already included in the design.
      Drisscoll believes co-working spaces like this one will continue to become more common in the future, as companies look to adopt more flexible working models for their staff.

      Paddington Works is aimed at startups in the creative and technology industries
      “I think flexible working is here to stay,” he said. “Previously reticent organisations have seen it can work and work well; people enjoy more control of what they do.”
      “We may see a trend towards decentralisation – large organisations with acres of office and fields of desks could shift towards smaller workplaces,” he added.
      “This could see an increase in local work hubs, with co-working spaces in residential areas providing excellent places for work closer to home, and spaces close to major transport hubs allowing people to easily travel to from distance to get together.”
      Photography is by Charles Hosea.

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      Office S&M injects bold colours into renovated Mo-tel House in London

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      An abundance of bright hues and recycled materials were used by London studio Office S&M to renovate a Georgian townhouse in Islington.

      Mo-tel House now has a kitchen at the front
      The Mo-tel House project involved remodelling the lower ground floor of a home owned by the founder of online fashion rental service On Loan and her family.
      The company promotes reusing garments rather than buying new, so the architects took a similar approach when selecting materials for the renovation.

      Rearranging the layout created a space for dining to the rear

      These include melted, discarded milk bottles and chopping boards for bathroom counters; leftover marble chips for kitchen worktops; and crushed bricks for ceramic pendant lamps.
      “Mo-tel challenged us to see reuse as a design tool for bold new ideas, and we found value and opportunities in materials that would otherwise have been overlooked,” said Office S&M founding partner Catrina Stewart.

      Custom furniture pieces include a seating nook for the dining area, which also incorporates storage
      Overhauling the terraced north London home began with opening up the dark and cramped space at the home’s entrance level.
      Removing the internal dividing wall allowed light to enter the living area from both front and back elevations, and also afforded a change of layout. The kitchen was moved to the front of the building, and a dining and seating area inserted towards the rear.

      A wide variety of colours are applied across the open-plan space
      Larger design elements were treated like scaled-down architectural features. For example, a pale pink structure with a double-pitched “roof” was added to provide a dining bench, seating nook and storage unit.
      In the kitchen, a light blue volume with a rounded top forms a pantry and acts as a visual anchor for green terrazzo countertops made from the recycled marble.

      Pink and green house designed by Office S&M to offer antidote to London’s “dire rental market”

      An apple-green shade was applied to the ceiling, window recesses and a band around the upper walls, complementing the surface of a pill-shaped dining table.
      Office S&M, founded by Stewart and partner Hugh McEwen, is no stranger to colour. Its previous projects in London include a house extension with bright yellow accents and a property painted Millennial pink.

      A ground floor bathroom pairs pale pink and dark tiles
      At Mo-tel House, the studio also chose teal cupboards, a pink tile kitchen backsplash, and tinted mirrors throughout the home.
      Pale timber floorboards are laid diagonally and contrast with the brightly coloured surfaces, which extend to hardware like radiators, light switches, electrical outlets and door handles.

      A colourful staircase leads up to another bathroom
      The renovation, totalling 55 square metres, also encompassed bathrooms on two levels that are stacked at the back of the building.
      On the lower ground floor, the first is reached through a pink utility room and is lined with dark tiles.

      The ground-floor bathroom features yellow accents and recycled plastic counters
      The second bathroom is reached by climbing a staircase decorated in pink and yellow. This washroom was reconfigured to fit a shower as well as a bathtub, and now features the recycled plastic surfaces made from recycled plastic.
      Yellow tile grout was chosen to match the bathroom’s window frame and shower curtain, while the rest of the space is white.
      Photography is by French + Tye.
      Project credits:
      Architect: Office S&MEngineer: Foster StructuresContractor: McEllingott BuildingFurniture build: McEllingott BuildingKitchen surfaces: In OperaRecycled plastic surfaces: Smile Plastics

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      Buckley Gray Yeoman gives Panagram office in London a “retro-pop aesthetic”

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      UK architecture studio Buckley Gray Yeoman has revived a 1980s office building in Central London, creating colourful spaces using painted ductwork, translucent curtains and speckled terrazzo.The newly opened Panagram encompasses 4,830 square metres in the city’s Clerkenwell neighbourhood and offers rentable office spaces across multiple levels.

      Buckley Gray Yeoman’s renovation of the 1980s building included creating an open and informal reception area
      Using the original building’s pink granite cladding as a design cue, the team at Buckley Gray Yeoman devised a colourful scheme for the interior renovation to create a relaxed setting.
      “A retro-pop aesthetic has replaced the corporate look and feel of the building as physical and metaphorical barriers are broken down to bring about a more convivial and lively set of workspaces,” said the architecture studio.

      The foyer features subway-tiled seating but no reception desk

      To modernise the existing architecture, glazing was added along the ground floor facing Goswell Road – a thoroughfare that is home to store locations of several prominent design brands.
      Visitors enter from the street into a large open-plan foyer, furnished with custom seating elements but no traditional reception desk – hosts emerge from a behind a translucent curtain instead.

      A koi carp pond sits in the centre of the tiled bench
      The sculptural seats include a plinth clad in white New York City subway tiles, with a koi carp pond and a bright yellow steel column at its centre. Another is wrapped in leather and surrounds a ficus tree.

      Fashion Street by Buckley Gray Yeoman

      “We have tried to create an almost gallery-type space upon entry; with a series of beautiful objects set amongst planting and trees,” said Oliver Bayliss, director at Buckley Gray Yeoman.
      “These accents continue throughout the building and provide moments of joy that will hopefully lift the spirits of the people who pass through.”

      A wooden staircase with bleacher-style seating creates a multi-purpose space
      A wooden staircase that incorporates bleacher-style seating and another ficus curves down to the garden-level, combining circulation space with an informal work, meeting or auditorium area.
      Lifts illuminated with coloured lighting connect the expansive rentable office spaces on the levels above, and ductwork is painted pink and blue on alternating levels.

      Lifts to the upper office levels are illuminated with coloured lighting
      On the second floor, Buckley Gray Yeoman has designed a workspace to demonstrate the potential of Panagram’s spatial offering.
      This model office combines pale timber, soft colours and translucent materials to continue the playful aesthetic seen downstairs.

      Buckley Gray Yeoman’s showcase office for Panagram features a pale palette with pastel colours
      A casual meeting area is enclosed by a sheer yellow curtain and furnished with comfy chairs, while private booths are lined in grey felt.
      Drapes are also used to partition the wood-lined reception area and the green-themed kitchen if needed. In the bathrooms, white subway tiles are paired with tinted speckled terrazzo.

      Colour continues in the green kitchen, which can be partitioned off with a translucent grey curtain
      The open-plan office layout benefits from plenty of natural light, and is peppered with potted plants. More greenery can be found on terraces that offer City of London views.
      “It’s easy to look at a building like this and assume you have to start again,” said Bayliss.
      “We saw an opportunity to create something really different and highly sustainable. Panagram has great volume and therefore great natural light, which in turn allows the building to be extremely desirable and flexible.”

      Panagram is located in London’s Clerkenwell neighbourhood, facing onto Goswell Road
      Buckley Gray Yeoman, which has offices in London and Bristol, is known for its imaginative conversion and restoration projects. The employee-owned firm has also turned a fire-damaged former market hall in Shoreditch into Corten-clad university offices, and was profiled as part of Dezeen’s Virtual Design Festival last year.
      Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.
      Project credits:Client: DorringtonArchitect: Buckley Gray YeomanContractor: Open ContractsProject manager: Blackburn & CoStructural engineers: Heyne Tillett SteelPlanning consultant: JLLLandscape architect: SpacehubBranding and design agency: Everything In BetweenM&E consultant: Peter Deer and AssociatesQuantity surveyor: ExigereLighting Designer: Pritchard ThemisFire engineer: MLMRights of Light/Party Wall surveyor: Point2SurveyorsBuilding control: MLMBuilding app: Smart SpacesIT consultants: DP SystemsAgents: Colliers, Allsop, Richard Susskind & CompanyBuilding managers: Workman

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      Bureau de Change makes creative use of terrazzo in Frame House renovation

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      London studio Bureau de Change has used different varieties of terrazzo to create a richly textured interior for a remodelled family home.Frame House is a Victorian terraced home in south London, renovated and extended by Bureau de Change for a property developer and her family.

      The ground floor of Frame House is split over three levels
      The project involved adding a rear extension, converting the loft and completing revamping the interior. But most importantly, the client wanted to give the home a distinct character and coherency throughout.
      The architecture studio achieved this with a carefully planned colour and material strategy, and through playful use of geometry.

      The lounge occupies the extended rear of the house

      “The brief was to create a coherent journey through all spaces and floors,” explained architect Billy Mavropoulos, who co-founded Bureau de Change with partner Katerina Dionysopoulou.
      “We needed a holistic design, looking at everything from the architecture of the extension, to the layouts and the way the spaces are used, down to the joinery handles and details,” he told Dezeen.
      “The client was after a rich palette of finishes and colours, but one that would feel consistently part of the same narrative.”

      Different varieties of terrazzo were chosen for different areas
      As is common with Victorian terraces, Frame House has a split-level layout that helps to make the floor plan more efficient.
      In the new layout, the ground floor is divided over three levels, comprising the kitchen, dining space and lounge. The two split-level upper storeys contain three en-suite bedrooms, a separate bathroom and a study room.
      Terrazzo was the material that Mavropoulos and Dionysopoulou chose to unite the various spaces. It is a material the pair are familiar with, having previously used it in another residential project, Folds House.

      Different shades of taupe feature on each of the ground floor levels
      Here, they decided to work with different varieties of terrazzo to give each space its own character, while subtly tying them all together.
      On the ground floor the flooring is a taupe terrazzo in three slightly different shades – one for each level. This creates a gentle transition from light to dark, starting with the kitchen at the front of the house and ending with the lounge at the rear.

      A green marble terrazzo was chosen for the staircase handrail
      “We chose them very carefully so that they are all of the same family but vary in darkness/density,” said Mavropoulos.
      “The colour difference is very subtle as we did not want the floor to take over. But when you look closely you notice the difference.”
      Other details have been picked out contrasting terrazzo varieties: a kitchen island features shades of red and black, the staircase handrails are a green marble terrazzo, and each bathroom has its own different shade.

      The master bedroom on the first floor features an en-suite with grey terrazzo
      The geometries of the design are based around the rear extension, which gives the occupants a large living space.
      Keen to avoid the 45-degree angled roof and frameless glass typical of infill extensions, the architects opted for a more cuboidal approach. Steel frames create staggered glass boxes, which Mavropoulos and Dionysopoulou liken to museum display cases.

      The new loft bedroom features an en-suite with pale terrazzo and pink walls
      “When we looked at the cascading volumes in plan and section, we felt there was an element of fragility to them, almost like a jewel stone, so we decided to make them out of glass to enhance that feel,” said Mavropoulos.
      “These distinctly cubist glass volumes are articulated through their bold steel-frame construction, expressing each edge in a manner that creates shifting patterns of light and space, and a paradoxical sense of both levity and solidity,” added Dionysopoulou.

      The terrazzo also extends into the garden, forming cascading planters
      These cascading box forms are referenced in other places, such as the proportions of the split floor levels, or the planting boxes in the garden. There’s also a glass display case in the dining area.
      Other details contribute to the personality of these spaces. The lounge room brings together a floral-patterned rug and a large cactus plant, while the dining space features a wall of shelving filled with various objects and books.
      The architects hope the result is one of “theatre and tactility”.
      Photography is by Gilbert McCarragher.
      Project credits
      Architect: Bureau de ChangeInteriors: Bureau de ChangeEngineer: SymmetrysM&E: MWLContractor: Argyll LondonLandscape: Tulip Landscapes

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      Five standout pieces at the Ron Arad 69 exhibition

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      A Brexit-themed chair and a crumpled bin are some of the pieces to feature in an exhibition at Newlands House gallery that showcases 40 years of work by Israeli designer Ron Arad.The exhibition is titled Ron Arad 69, in honour of the designer’s 69th birthday in 2020, and showcases 50 standout pieces from his extensive oeuvre.
      Some of the pieces date back to the 1980s, when Arad established his eponymous studio, while others are from the 90s and 2000s – as well as a select few works that were released as recently as last year.

      “For me, business is always a necessary evil” says Ron Arad

      They are all displayed amongst the grounds and historic rooms of Newlands House, a 700-square-metre gallery in West Sussex which occupies a heritage-listed Georgian townhouse and its adjoining coach house.
      It is headed up by creative director Simon De Pury, who says it was an obvious choice to create a show around Arad’s work.
      “Ron Arad is a giant in his field,” Pury told Dezeen.”He has developed his uniquely personal language; while he has been copied by many, his work remains strong and timeless.”
      The pieces in the exhibition have not been arranged in chronological order, but simply placed where Pury felt they looked best in the gallery.
      “It’s not a retrospective, it’s a sampling of works that I personally love from Ron’s career,” Pury explained.
      “I greatly look forward to seeing the contrast between the 19th-century architecture of the gallery and the resolutely 21st-century feel of Arad’s dazzling and bold works,” he continued.
      “I hope visitors will enjoy experiencing the beauty, elegance and also the sense of humour of his amazing work in the intimate setting of a house that helps the viewer imagine what it would be like to live with it.”
      Read on to get a glimpse of five works that feature in the exhibition:

      Now What, 2020
      More colloquially known as the Brexit Chair, Now What is haphazardly plastered with clippings of newspapers that were released on Friday 31 January 2020 – the day that Britain left the European Union.
      Now What’s rounded seat and Mickey Mouse-shaped backrest riffs off the curvaceous form of Arad’s Big Easy chair, which was designed back in 1988.

      Where Are My Glasses?, 2018
      These ombre-effect coloured vases were originally launched during the 2018 edition of Milan Design Week.
      To create them, Ron Arad asked experts working at Italian glassware brand Venini to blow glass through metal-frame spectacles – the spectacles act almost like a taut belt, which forces the vase to bulge outwards at the sides.

      Photo by Gary Morrisroe
      Blame The Tools, 2013
      Arad’s Blame The Tools sculpture is shaped to resemble a life-sized Fiat 500 car. Crafted from stainless-steel sheets and rods, the gridded sculpture is so heavy that it had to be hoisted by a crane into Newlands House’s front garden.
      “I like to imagine how this car would look if it stayed here and we let nature do its work, eventually you’d have vegetation growing through it,” said Pury.

      Crash Bin, 2006
      Danish retailer Vipp asked Ron Arad to customise one of its bins for a charity auction 15 years ago.
      Instead of making aesthetic changes, the designer crushed the product from the top down, making deep dents in its silver-metal exterior. Arad’s signature appears just above the bin’s foot pedal.

      The Rover Chair, 1981
      Found objects were used to form The Rover chair, which is the first piece of furniture to be designed by Arad.
      The chair’s worn leather seat was taken from a Rover P6 car, while its tubular steel frame is made from Kee Klamps that were once part of a milking stall for farm animals.
      Photography is courtesy of Elizabeth Zeschin unless stated otherwise.
      Ron Arad 69 is at Newlands House, UK, from 19 September 2020 until 7 March 2021, but the gallery is currently closed due to Covid-19. For more architecture and design events, visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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      Studio Hallett Ike expands ER Residence in London with charred larch extension

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      Minimal white living spaces lie behind the blackened timber facade of this extension that Studio Hallett Ike has added to a Victorian flat in north London.The flat, which has been titled ER Residence, occupies the ground floor of a Victorian terrace. Studio Hallett Ike said that, prior to its intervention, the flat had a well-proportioned layout, but unfortunately was only able to accommodate a single bedroom.
      Now, thanks to a rear extension, the flat contains a second bedroom – which doubles up as a study – and a dining room.

      Beams of charred larch clad ER Residence’s extension

      “Essentially we wanted to create a property that would work for a young family living in London that wants an aspirational, clean, minimal design whilst retaining a realistic project budget,” the studio’s co-founder, Madeleine Ike, told Dezeen.
      “The idea being that it could act as a case study for other London residents in the same situation without a huge budget.”

      The extension contains an additional bedroom
      The extension is rectilinear in form and clad with beams of blackened English larch, which were charred by hand on-site.
      “Doing this, rather than painting or staining, allows the texture and grain of the larch to feel very present, and to age and patina over time,” the studio explained.
      “The colour changes depending on the weather and time of year; during the winter months it has silvery hues, but evolves to appear warmer in the summer.”

      A desk in the bedroom offers a place for inhabitants to work
      Two different-sized windows also punctuate the extension’s exterior, which are both framed with aluminium.
      The slightly wider window looks through to the bedroom-cum-study, which has been finished with clean white walls.

      The extension also plays host to a dining room
      A wide panel of Douglas fir wood has been set at the rear of the room, serving as a headboard for the bed. To the side of the room is a three-tier shelving unit and a desk where inhabitants can sit and work.

      Burnt House is a charred wood extension that looks like a Japanese tea house

      The narrower window in the extension offers a view of the dining room.
      Douglas fir has been used here again to create a seating bench – a cut-out in the shape of a cat’s head has been made in the bottom corner, through which the owners’ feline companion can crawl to access a cosy cubby.

      The dining room table is accompanied by a Douglas fir bench
      Studio Hallett Ike has continued the colour and material palette of the extension through to the rest of the home. The updated kitchen, for example, boasts Douglas-fir cabinetry and a white terrazzo splashback.
      Grey terrazzo has then been used to line surfaces in the bathroom.

      Terrazzo appears in the flat’s kitchen, and the bathroom
      Walls in the living area have been coated with a pale grey plaster that stops just beneath the room’s original plaster cornicing. The existing wooden floorboards here were also preserved and sanded down to expose more of their natural grain.
      Black-metal furnishings such as the coffee table and overhead lighting fixture were included to “give weight and depth” to the space.

      Pale grey plaster coats walls in the living room
      “The overarching design approach was to carry out a small number of strong but simple moves that are consistently applied, sitting at the heart of every design consideration,” added the studio.
      “These come together to create an overall impression that is minimal and timeless, exuding an assured and understated elegance.”

      The living room also features the flat’s original wooden floorboards
      Studio Hallet Ike was founded by Madeleine Ike and Jonty Hallett in 2018. The studio’s ER Residence isn’t the only London property to feature a charred-wood extension – Rider Stirland Architects added a blackened timber volume to a house in Ladywell.
      Will Gamble Architects also used scorched wood to create a Japanese tea house-style extension for a home in Fulham.
      Photography is by Ståle Eriksen.

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      Ben Allen completes overhaul of his own home in east London

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      Artworks by Olafur Eliasson informed architect Ben Allen’s revamp of his two-storey maisonette in London’s Bethnal Green, which features mirrored furniture elements.The maisonette is set inside Keeling House, a 16-storey residential block that was designed by English architect Denys Lasdun in 1957.

      Reflective artworks by Olafur Eliasson are presented in the home’s stairwell
      The founder of Studio Ben Allen and his wife decorated their home’s interior with an array of personal possessions so that it looks like a cabinet of curiosities.
      Amongst these possessions are a number of optical artworks gifted by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, whom Allen worked for over a 10-year period.

      Oval mirrored side tables have been placed beside the bed

      Several of the artworks are crafted from glass or mirror, and this prompted Allen to incorporate reflective elements in other spaces throughout the home.
      The architect was also inspired by the round convex mirrors that appear in London’s Sir John Soane Museum, which playfully skew how visitors perceive the exhibition rooms.

      The bedroom’s vanity table is also mirrored
      A pair of oval mirrored side tables feature in the bedroom that’s located on the maisonette’s upper floor.
      Another mirrored panel has been mounted on the wall to form the backing of a vanity table, which boasts a semi-circular brass ledge where jewellery, perfume bottles and other trinkets can be displayed.
      The bedroom has otherwise been simply finished with white-painted walls, larch wardrobes and exposed-wired lighting fixtures.

      More mirrors have been affixed to the bathroom’s cabinet and walls
      In the bathroom, half-moon-shaped mirrors have been affixed to the doors of a storage cabinet, which sits directly above a bespoke green-concrete sink.
      The image of the sink is repeated in an arched mirror on an adjacent wall.

      The bathroom’s hardware is made from gold-hued brass
      Surfaces are clad with jade-green tiles, while taps, spouts and the tubular shower head are made from brass. Perforated shutters have also been installed in front of the windows to allow just a little amount of natural light to seep through from the outdoors.
      “We wanted the bathroom to be purposefully darker to contrast with the brightness of the rest of the flat and to imbue it with a sense of refuge,” Allen explained.

      Studio Ben Allen makes Room for One More inside Barbican flat

      At this level of the house, there’s additionally a study that has a green cushioned daybed and a larch work table.

      A study with larch-wood joinery is on the home’s upper floor
      Most of Eliasson’s art pieces can be seen in the maisonette’s stairwell, displayed alongside arched mirror shelves that hold candles or tiny architectural models.
      Steps lead down to the lower floor, where Allen has exclusively applied a selection of “robust” materials which are meant to age well over time.
      “[Materials] have also been chosen to give a sense of tactile warmth both when the flat is flooded with daylight, as well as on overcast days and at night,” added Allen.

      Downstairs is the kitchen, which features a green-concrete counter
      The kitchen, for example, has oak cupboards and a green-concrete countertop. A grey-tile splashback is dotted with brass pegs where crockery or cooking utensils can be hung.
      Just opposite there’s a book-lined sitting room complete with a black leather sofa and a cosy oak seating nook that doubles-up as a storage box.

      A tall shelving unit separates the kitchen from the sitting room
      To loosely divide these two spaces, Allen and his team have erected a trellis-style shelving unit that stretches from floor to ceiling. A small work desk can be pulled out from the blue fibreboard drawers that sit at the unit’s base.
      The presence of the unit acts as a small homage to architect Lasdun, who had originally designed the flats inside Keeling House with galley kitchens that were separate from the sitting rooms.
      This was changed in the 1990s when, at risk of demolition, the building was completely revamped to feature minimal, open-plan living areas.

      The sitting room includes a cosy window nook
      Expansive panels of glazing look through to the maisonette’s balcony, where Allen has added a planter filled with wild grass and a Rhus Typhina tree. Beyond lies views of Hampstead Heath park and the city of London.
      Allen established his self-titled studio in 2014 and has since gone on to complete a number of projects. Just last year, the studio created an artichoke-shaped garden room for a home in southwest London, and renovated a Barbican flat to include colourful fold-out furniture.
      Photography is by French + Tye.
      Project credits:
      Architects: Studio Ben Allen (Team: Ben Allen and Marco Nicastro)Main contractor: Sullivan and CompanyBalcony and window planting scheme design: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan

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      Archmongers uses primary colours to revive a home in the modernist Golden Lane Estate

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      London studio Archmongers has renovated a duplex flat in one of the city’s most influential housing estates, using shades of red, yellow and blue to complement the modernist materials palette.The three-bedroom home is located within Hatfield House on the Golden Lane Estate, a complex designed and built in the 1950s by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, the same architects responsible for the Barbican.

      The renovation celebrates the original design of the Golden Lane flat
      Archmongers’ refurbishment is designed to celebrate the flat’s key features – the bright and open living spaces, the efficient organisation of spaces, and material details like the terrazzo stairs and tiled surfaces.
      Referencing historic photos of original Golden Lane flats, architects Margaret Bursa and Johan Hybschmann sought to reinstate details that had been removed or covered over in an earlier remodelling, which they described as “mundanely neutral”.

      Wooden frames create subtle separation between kitchen and living spaces

      The architects added chunky wooden frames to recreate separation between the kitchen and lounge space, without losing the visual connection.
      Bespoke steel storage cabinets were installed, while original hardwood window frames and parquet flooring were uncovered.

      Details are picked out in primary colours
      “The biggest change was, in many ways, bringing it back to what it once was,” Hybschmann told Dezeen. “Not because we had to, but because it made a lot of sense.”
      “The original palette of materials felt very modern and we wanted any new element or surface to be as relevant for many years to come.”

      These bright colours also feature in the bedrooms
      Bursa and Hybschmann chose to apply primary colours to various details in the renovated flat, referencing some of the historic exterior details on the Golden Lane Estate.
      Shades of red and yellow highlight the front door and entrance area. The same hues feature in the first floor bedrooms and bathroom, along with blue tones – the idea was to give every room its own colour, in a high-gloss finish.

      Each bedroom has its own colour
      “We’ve tried as best as possible to colour match the red, yellow, blue and dark blue exterior panels of each of the blocks making up the estate,” explained Hybschmann.
      “They work very well together and it’s a nice reference to bring into the interiors of the building.”

      The colours reference details on the building’s exterior
      Other material details also help to tie spaces together. The granite surfaces in the kitchen echo the terrazzo of the staircase, while the new black quarry tiles in the kitchen match up with those in the external hallways.

      Studio Ben Allen makes Room for One More inside Barbican flat

      The bathroom was given an upgrade too, to make it more suitable for modern living. It now includes a Japanese-style bath and a walk-in shower, with a new internal window that allows more daylight in.
      The home is brought to life by the addition of the clients’ midcentury furniture and large book collection.

      The bathroom was updated with a Japanese-style bath and walk-in shower
      Archmongers has previously worked on other modernist refurbishments, in the Barbican and The Ryde in Hertfordshire, along with various council houses in London. The architects’ ongoing aim is to show the inherent potential in these midcentury buildings.
      “Being able to work on another of London’s iconic modernist estates was a privilege,” added Bursa.
      “Our experience helped us to deliver spaces sympathetic to the original vision while also creating a home that will intrigue, invite exploration, and provide opportunities for people to discover, enjoy, and deepen their engagement with modernist architecture.”
      Photography is by French + Tye.

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