St John Street

The project sought to explore a sustainable solution to the renovation: retaining, celebrating and enabling the continued use of the ‘carbon intensive’ historic structure through the insertion of new high quality crafted interiors.

Through the addition of a cluster of internal rooms at the centre of the plan, the maximum perimeter of the existing structure was left exposed, and living and sleeping spaces could profit from natural daylight at opposite ends of the protracted floorplan. These new interventions are conceived as independent elements, lined with joinery and ceramic surfaces to create a distinctive identity to each.

On entering the apartment, one is brought directly into the library. This rectangular room is lined entirely in oak joinery, incorporating bookshelves and storage within a precisely calibrated array of vertical and horizontal elements. Wide-format sliding oak pocket doors enable lateral views from one end of the apartment to the other through the library interior. When closed, the area becomes a contained room, a book-lined sanctuary at the heart of the home.

A palette of lime-washed birch plywood, set against rich oak parquet flooring and exposed brickwork, is used in the kitchen, living space and bedrooms. In the master bedroom, a natural clay plaster softens the exposed brickwork walls, highlighting the changing quality of light throughout the day through subtle shifts in texture and colour.

Designed, procured and constructed within a tight eight-month programme, which corresponded with the first eight months of lockdown in the UK, the project is testament to what can be achieved when client, architect and contractor come together with a shared vision and commitment.