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Project Details:

Location: Highbury, London

Architect: Holloway Li / @_hollowayli

General Contractor: Chelsea Construction

Photographer: Edmund Dabney / @edmund_dabney

From the Architect: “The flat, situated in a converted Victorian, serves as place for the practice to experiment with their own product ranges and domestic design solutions.

“Opening up the space permitted more freedom for a new arrangement. With two new windows, the main area is used for living and entertaining, and includes a bathtub.

“Although reconfiguring the flat’s circulation serves a contemporary mode of open-plan living, some of the original architectural elements such as the Victorian butterfly roof are preserved. Coated in raw and multifinish plaster, the historic wings of the ceiling catch the new light that is afforded by the added windows.

“This dialogue between the original and the modern permeates the scheme through the use of homogenizing color; upon entry the corridor is bathed in a rich majorelle blue, with the wood work and Victorian cornice details conforming to this monochromatic overload. The scheme is tied together through its consistent and daring color palette as well as it adventurous materiality, deftly balancing heritage with the extravagance of a hospitality interior.

“Holloway looked to the local London vernacular of fast-food outlets—kebab shops or fish and chip shops—when designing the kitchen. The design studio as a whole is interested in the convergence of high and low culture, and the kitchen provided an opportunity to explore how this could be manifested within the home. The design aimed to both capture and celebrate the atmosphere of the trip to the kebab shop after a night out in the city. Without being tongue-in-cheek, the culturally-informed materiality of the stainless steel coupled with the elegantly fabricated curves of the back splash form a hybrid moment within the room; a nod to London’s cosmopolitan DNA, and the London that Holloway grew up in.

“Custom made pieces of furniture populate the project. From the sleek resin table to the bulbous T4 chair (that was launched at this year’s London Design Festival in collaboration with Uma), the space and the products within work in tandem to eloquently and unapologetically declare their language of design. The setting’s varied and tactile palette, spanning from raw exposed plaster and warm Douglas Fir to tough stainless steel and crisp micro-cement, ensures it does not become the backdrop to the louder citrus-hued items. The scheme offers an opportunity for the studio to test its ethos around furniture. Showcasing its innovation around the repurposing of samples and creative use of off-cuts, studio emphasizes its penchant for sustainability.”