For their terrace home renovation in London, a chef and his family set out a brief for a large kitchen area with generous space for people to socialise when hosting pop-up dinners. Yellow Cloud Studio took inspiration from this simple yet confident brief, rethinking the entire ground floor of the property with a design that achieves a sequence of spaces that can be experienced seamlessly, using natural light and materiality to create a strong yet understated visual language.
The kitchen, and the kitchen island, in particular, is the main focal point of the new layout with a large skylight directing natural light towards the area where the chef would be preparing and cooking the food, referencing the stage light a protagonist would receive.
Visual connections between the kitchen and the remaining spaces are maintained with openings placed in key locations throughout the floor plan and transparent materials are employed to enhance visual lines. This includes wire mesh in place of a traditional staircase balustrade and sliding shoji doors lined with translucent fabric.
A heightened experience of space is created through contrast. The natural light, high ceilings and lighter colour palette of the kitchen highlight the importance of food preparation and hygiene. Meanwhile, the dining area offers a darker tonality for a more atmospheric setting. The front room is the final stage of the experience, with the shoji doors sliding open to an additional socializing space that houses a custom made unit for the client’s extensive record collection.
A final important connection is that between the interior interconnected spaces and the back garden, with sightlines in the plan derived to ensure long views to the garden from the furthest points in the house. Floor to ceiling sliding panels allow for a maximum opening area while their proportion references an additional fixed window, resulting in a slim vertical rhythm across the rear façade.
A timber canopy projects over the original building and runs vertically to create a box that wraps around the glazed elements, also creating an external seating that visually references the one on the inside. The added weather protection provided by the canopy ensures that the doors can be kept open while materials play a key role in blurring the line between internal/ external spaces.
Key materials used in the design include a seamless concrete floor that connects all spaces through to the garden. Treated durable plywood is used in the rear façade and becomes the kitchen’s main material while birch plywood and white marble provide contrast.
A seamless concrete floor connects all spaces through to the garden and a treated, durable plywood starts at the rear facade and becomes the kitchen’s main material. The birch plywood and white marble provide necessary contrast where dictated by the concept and the steel mesh of the staircase together with the shoji fabric bring elements of transparency.
