When we first visited this house in Ladbroke Grove, the top floor roof terrace had failed, rain water had leaked as far down as the first floor and the building was derelict and hadn’t been occupied for some time. Many original features of the house, had been concealed or stripped out. Nearly all the shutters had been painted-in; every fireplace blocked up; the staircase painted over in white gloss; original skirtings, door architraves and doors had mostly disappeared.
The house required complete re-servicing and a fresh approach to the internal layout. The kitchen was moved to the ground floor adjacent to the new dining room, the original floor plans were re-introduced on the top two floors to allow for bedrooms and bathrooms, and the landing and circulation areas were opened up to become more light and spacious with discreetly designed storage amenities.
Our approach was to identify where the building required careful restoration and where we could make contemporary insertions whilst respecting the original fabric of the building. We established a comprehensive restoration programme, involving repair and/or replacement of details and features important in the history of the building. We stripped the paintwork from the window reveals to reveal a near-complete set of original, functioning shutters; we stripped back the staircase to reveal a beautifully preserved timber structure: we copied sections of all the surviving internal joinery and replicated their exact profiles to repair woodwork in areas where necessary; we opened up the fireplaces and re-instated chimney pieces appropriate to the period of the house; impressions were taken of the original cornice sections and re-produced in plaster to re-instated the collapsed ceilings. The natural finishes of many surviving elements within the building were left exposed to show their material qualities to best effect.
With this restoration programme providing the framework for the project, we set about designing the more contemporary elements that would sit in contrast to the period detail of the house. Our client agreed that the non-restorative designs should have a material sensitivity to their context, so we settled on a soft palette of materials that could sit comfortably in such refined surroundings. Italian limestone, welsh slate, cast concrete, white oiled oak, natural unlaquered brass and weathered zinc- all naturally derived materials which in time will attain their own texture and become part of the aged patina of the house.
We were interested in creating a distinctive aesthetic that is contemporary in its proportions and detail while drawing on a language of craftsmanship, and understanding of materials which is illustrated in the kitchen where these components all come together. These preoccupations are central to how we understand design and the way we develop our ideas.
