King Edward's Road

King Edward's road involved the complete internal refurbishment of an existing studio apartment located in the London borough of Hackney. The building itself is an Art Deco warehouse that formerly operated as a clothing factory. Built around the 1920’s, it has since been converted into an apartment complex with 89 individual housing units. The studio was previously arranged with a bathroom and the kitchen toward the rear of the narrow space. There was a mezzanine roughly in the centre of the apartment with a modest living area at the far end. This arrangement made it very difficult for natural light to penetrate, resulting in over 70% of the apartment relying on artificial light. It was clear to us that a complete rethink on how the interior was arranged would be required. We stripped the interior back to its raw materials of concrete and brickwork and located the bathroom, with an integrated steam room, at the rear. A new mezzanine was installed to the rear, over the bathroom, in a bid to reduce the physical barriers within the narrow apartment to further encourage daylight deeper into the plan. A concealed staircase is located beyond the bathroom, providing access up to the mezzanine level which houses a closet space and the sleeping area. Prioritising the needs of the relevant areas, we located the closet to the back and the sleeping area to the front of the mezzanine. A Japanese style soaking bathtub also sits at this level giving an elevated viewing position. Ceiling mounted blackout curtains were included to help close off the space in the evening. A combined kitchen/dining/living completes the remainder of the apartment. By freeing up the centre of the plan and locating the mezzanine towards the rear, the kitchen/dining/living is afforded a tremendous amount of breathing room by way of the double height space it now enjoys. This allows the apartment to maximise its limited confines and bring about a sense of drama. The large windows allow the daylight to flood in and bathe the interior with natural light. The existing building is formed from a collection of typically hard wearing and industrial style materials. This was something that we felt should be celebrated rather than covered up. As a result we polished the concrete floor and stripped away the plasterboard walls covering the brickwork infill that sat between the concrete frame. The concrete ceiling with all its board marks are on display with big chunky structure forming the interior’s flavour instead of being a hindrance to cover over. We let this inform other elements of the interior with ducting being proudly displayed and structural elements painted and left on show rather than hidden.