Jasper Sanders + Partners has completed the interior design of the resident amenity spaces at The Radiant, a six-storey, 111-apartment, build-to-rent development on Kirkstall Road in Leeds.
The building was acquired by Starlight Investments at the practical completion stage, with the ground floor originally designed for a commercial tenancy separate from the residential offer. Recognising the opportunity to create greater value for residents, Starlight Investments appointed Jasper Sanders + Partners to transform the ground floor instead into a series of amenity spaces designed to support the community living within the building.
The design is centred around the narrative of ‘From Velocity to Serenity’, responding to the noise and intensity of the adjacent Kirkstall Road, a major route into Leeds city centre, through the creation of an interior environment that embodies the opposite atmosphere and feels calm, quiet and softly lit.
The city as theatre
The Radiant sits immediately alongside five lanes of busy traffic, close to traffic lights with the constant cycle of braking and acceleration creating a soundtrack of cars, buses and HGVs. So, rather than attempting to deny this urban condition, the design team sought to use it as part of the design narrative.
The amenity spaces are conceived almost as a theatrical auditorium, with residents able to sit within a calm, highly tactile interior and observe the movement of the city beyond the picture windows. The road becomes a constantly changing urban performance, viewed from an environment deliberately designed to feel anything but.
Heightened contrast is achieved through the considered manipulation of sound, light, texture and spatial enclosure. Highly absorbent surfaces help reduce reverberation, while layers of translucent drapery soften the spaces and create a visual and acoustic buffer between interior and exterior. A colour scheme of mellow yellows, golds and ochres is both welcoming and calming so the result is not a retreat from the city, but a different way of experiencing it.
“Starlight Investments placed particular emphasis on improving the quality of the resident experience, recognising the building's exposed position alongside a major highway and a location slightly outside Leeds city centre” Jasper Sanders, Director of Jasper Sanders + Partners commented. “The ambition was to create something distinctive for the communal interior spaces, helping establish The Radiant as a compelling residential destination.”
A material connection to Leeds
The material and colour palette draws on the character and history of Leeds, including its association with the wool and textile industries, without resorting to a literal interpretation of industrial heritage. Warm oak, taupe, ochre and chocolate tones combine with richer orange accents, tactile fabrics, velvet and patterned carpets to create an interior that feels grounded, familiar and residential.
Materials have been selected not only for their visual qualities, but for their contribution to the overall sensory experience. Soft textiles, layered drapery and rounded architectural forms contrast with the harder urban environment beyond.
A sequence of spaces
The amenity offer provides a series of distinct environments, with a range of settings within each. The intention was to give residents choice, allowing the spaces to respond to different moods and activities throughout the day, from focused work and informal meetings to relaxation, socialising and playtime.
This was particularly appropriate when considering the requirements now associated with the Building Control Gateway process. The amenity accommodation was developed therefore as a series of smaller spaces, each below 100m² and totalling 275m², creating a more cellular arrangement while allowing the design team to introduce greater variety, intimacy and a sense of discovery throughout the plan. Rather than being experienced as one large amenity floor therefore, the spaces unfold as a sequence of environments, each with its own character and purpose.
Residents first come into an arrival space, where flexible working tables sit alongside the glazing. To the right is a management back-of-house area, and, to the left, two principal lounges. The first of these, The Coffee Lounge, is a generous space with a large bespoke central table, paired with six comfortable Loafer SC24 chairs from &Tradition, upholstered in a Yarn Collective fabric in a Burnt shade from the Regent collection. A pendant light –Maris by Soho Home – sits directly above. A threshold of woven vinyl flooring features the Continuation floor tile from Milliken. To the rear of the space is a bespoke shelving unit finished in an Egger laminate, with a directly-adjacent coffee point in the same finish with a white Claybrook Studio tile backsplash. This tile is also used as cladding for the upper section of the walls and also in the following lounge, whilst a contrasting Alfa-Lux finish is used for the base of the wall and flooring. A perch table in this lounge, facing out towards the glazing, is by Modus, with two Anagram table lights by HAY. Wall lights here and in the next lounge are the Roc Wall Light by Marset.
The next space is the largest – The Entertainment Lounge, where the full yellow, orange and ochre colour treatment is expressed through voiles, flooring and furniture, including a stand-out giant sofa from Workstories Islands, upholstered in a fabric from Sunbury Design: a Madison Velvet in the Zest colourway. A high table here is another bespoke design, with a base in Egger laminate and a tabletop from Polygood. The accompanying chairs are the iconic Vitra Wire Stools, with upholstered seat pads in Hopsak. Flooring is a Desso Fields carpet tile by Tarkett in various ochre and yellow tones.
Maximising volume and space
The client brief placed particular emphasis on the on the quality and coordination of the building services for the amenity spaces. From the outset, the MEP strategy was developed alongside the interior architecture, rather than as something to be accommodated once the design had been established.
The rear of the building opens onto an undercroft car park, providing an opportunity to locate incoming and extract ventilation. An MVHR system with slot diffusers was introduced, while mechanical equipment was consolidated and carefully coordinated to minimise its volume within the ceiling void and retain as much ceiling height as possible. Where ceiling voids were established, the soffit was deliberately pushed upwards to form a series of raised, lit coffers, reclaiming volume for the occupied space rather than accepting residual areas of dead ceiling void.
The process required a high level of collaboration between the services engineers, interior designers, lighting designers and fit-out team. Ceiling geometry, fixed elements and furniture settings were coordinated as a single design system, with areas of raised soffit aligning directly with the functions beneath them. The result is an interior architecture in which the building services are not simply concealed behind a decorative layer, but integral to the composition of the space.
The coffers and ceiling edges have been softened and rounded, responding to the slightly irregular geometry of the existing plan while reinforcing the wider design narrative. Curved forms reference the movement of tail-lights from passing traffic beyond the windows, introducing a sense of flow into the interior.
Designing for sound
Acoustic performance is an essential component of the amenity experience. High-performance perforated acoustic plasterboard was used within the raised soffit areas to help reduce reverberation and control sound within the spaces. Curtain tracks were integrated into the ceiling design, allowing drapery to introduce another layer of acoustic absorption while simultaneously softening the visual character of the interior.
The combination of absorbent surfaces, acoustic plasterboard and drapery helps create a quieter environment in which individuals and small groups can occupy spaces in close proximity while maintaining conversational intimacy.
“This attention to sound reflects a broader Jasper Sanders + Partners principle” Rebecca Kelly, Creative Director at Jasper Sanders + Partners added, “namely that space is the ultimate luxury. Luxury is not simply about the visual appearance of an interior, but also about how much space people have, how that space sounds, how it feels and how effectively it supports the way people want to live.”
Light as atmosphere
The lighting design for the scheme was developed by UR-EKA in collaboration with Jasper Sanders + Partners, employing a warm 2700K colour temperature and a high colour rendering index of 90+ to create a soft, natural quality of light across the interior.
Light is used in the scheme as another means of separating the interior experience from the intensity of the road outside with a deliberately flexible strategy, allowing the atmosphere to evolve throughout the day. Brighter settings support daytime working and functional activity, while the lighting can be dimmed as the spaces transition towards more relaxed, warmer and social uses in the evening.
“The approach to light and sound reflects a broader understanding of quality within the build-to-rent environment.” Jasper Sanders explained. “A successful interior is not simply something to look at. It should sound good, feel comfortable and provide the right conditions for people to use and inhabit it.”
Designing for longevity
For Jasper Sanders + Partners, designing sustainably also means designing for longevity. A durable and timeless interior that continues to function well and remains relevant over many years can provide greater value than one driven by short-lived trends. The project therefore uses responsibly-sourced materials, low-energy services, high-quality lighting and robust detailing to create an interior capable of withstanding the demands of a busy shared residential environment.
Close coordination between disciplines allowed the design intent to be carried through from spatial planning and services coordination to the final material and furniture details, whilst, though the deliberate manipulation of space, sound, light and material, the project has succeeded in turning the intensity of Kirkstall Road into a backdrop for a quieter form of urban living.
