This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features an exceptional new build residence with 5 ensuite bedrooms, off street parking and leisure suite in the heart of Notting Hill. Fenton Whelan redeveloped and designed the property to create a boutique mansion townhouse, complete with a wellness centre comprising of a gym, sauna, steam room and Notting Hill’s longest swimming pool at 15 metres! The 6,225 sq.ft house is designed with a fresh colour palette and eclectic, contemporary interior pieces, to reflect the properties geography and the vernacular architecture of the surrounding area, whilst still retaining bespoke, luxury detailing throughout.
SBID Awards: Residential Design Over £1M finalist sponsored by THG Paris
Practice: Fenton Whelan
Project: Lonsdale Road, Notting Hill
Location: London, United Kingdom
What was the client's brief?
The brief was to redevelop and redesign the traditional Victorian property and create a 6,225 sq ft boutique family town-house whist retaining the original facade. The interior design juxtaposes the traditional and heritage elements of the property by introducing clean lines, large volume spaces and modern pieces to create a luxury family home.
What inspired the interior design of the project?
Inspiration was drawn from the buildings historical proportions and the vernacular architecture of the surrounding area, which has been emphasised in the design and married with meticulously designed and crafted pieces for an elegant and contemporary interior style. By combining these two inspirations the design has created a fresh and light home whilst still retaining the bespoke, luxury feel throughout.
Capitalising on ceiling heights and adding large bi-folding doors to the rear of the property on both the ground and first floors, we maximised the amount of light that flows through the property. The design and layout of the property, notably the creation of a dual aspect reception room, further emphasised the architectural volumes, making spaces feel open and bright.
What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?
The property was originally a Victorian era pub for which the façade was listed and therefore had to be retained. The process of transforming this into a modern luxury five bedroom home with leisure suite and home cinema came with a number of planning and spatial hurdles that our design team had to overcome By adding additional floors, both above and below ground, the volumes of key rooms could be maintained, and allowed spaces to remain open, maximising the flow of light throughout. Light was on the lower floors was managed through the addition of beautifully designed light wells creating private outside areas below ground. The introduction of a 4 floor sweeping staircase gives a sense of space and volume, from the first moment on entering the property.
What was your team’s highlight of the project?
Our team’s highlight of the project was our success in creating a unique design that harmonises a contemporary and luxurious feel whilst enhancing the buildings attributes. One example of this is the entrance hall and its sweeping four-storey staircase, fitted with made-to-measure balustrades and housing a full height drop chandelier, with custom-made lights inspired by the leaves from the tree-lined road outside.
Why did you enter the SBID Awards?
The SBID International Design Awards are a recognition of talent and achievement, which is very important to use being placed amongst world recognised design companies who are all leaders in their respective fields.
Questions answered by Desariot Ademaj, Creative Director of Fenton Whelan
We hope you feel inspired by this week's Residential design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
If you missed last week's Project of the Week featuring a design which emulates the eclectic scene of downtown Frankfurt with an urban aesthetic and cool, artistic flare, click here to see more.
SBID Awards 2019 | Residential Design Over £1M finalist sponsored by THG Paris
This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a private underground entertainment space for an ambitious London client. Nice Brew Design were commissioned to design the 530 square metre space which was built under an existing 1920s detached home in London. Working alongside the Architect and dealing with various restrictions, Nice Brew Design came up with a large open space with the use of visual zoning to divide up each entertainment area, but also ensure the space as a whole was unified through the interior design scheme and layout throughout.
Practice: Nice Brew Design
Project: Private Entertainment Space
The space needed to include a large gym and shower room, WCs, two-lane bowling alley, dance area and DJ booth, an IMAX cinema to seat up to 20 people, bar area that would double up as a meeting space, a wine room, pool table and various seating areas - including an area with five screens for multi-screen sport watching. The space was going to have various types of end-users; the family, teenagers and friends – but was also going to be used for large corporate events and needed to have a sophiscated AV and lighting system, as well as be hard-wearing where possible.
The Art Deco style was our background inspiration, as well as creating the atmosphere and style of a traditional Gentleman’s club. However, the design concept actually resulted in a more modern, minimal take on this.
The opportunity to work on such a varied project was fantastic. At times it felt like 5 projects in one! Design work started in 2015 with construction kicking off early in 2016 and the project completing in November 2018. As such it was a detailed and an all time consuming project. Finally seeing the designs realised after so much time was definitely the highlight.
Two things stand out. Firstly the acoustics of the space. Noise from music, and in particular the bowling alley, needed to be retained within the basement and it was essential that it didn’t travel into the house or the gardens above, as it is a residential area. Acoustic plaster from Stil acoustics was used on the ceilings; acoustic glass and doors were specified for the glass encased staircase that leads to the main house and the wine room, as well as to the floor to ceiling bronze doors that separate the house and bunker staircase. The bespoke bronze doors to the external entrance at underground level were also acoustic specified and a copper clad box that encases the external staircase from the garden level was designed to further ensure noise was kept below ground.
Another challenge we faced was that the space was restricted. Position was governed by the fact that The Bunker needed to link to the main house above as well as have an external entrance. Originally the project was designed as a two storey bunker but it was then discovered that the existing borehole only went down 6m and a further test resulted in the conclusion that this would be a complex construction and was updated to a single storey proposal instead.
We felt the project deserved to be recognised and the SBID Awards are the one to aim for within the industry!
Questions answered by Charlotte Jackson, Creative Director at Nice Brew Design
If you missed last week's Project of the Week featuring a stunning Shanghai residence located in the heart of Shanghai’s Pudong district, click here to see more.
This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire series features the grand refurbishment of the historic York Theatre Royal completed by De Matos Ryan.
York Theatre Royal received a significant re-development by De Matos Ryan in 2016, dramatically transforming the theatre’s spaces and visitor experience. The theatre has occupied the site since 1744 and has since under gone several alterations over the years, including the construction of a new foyer, a vaulted concrete pavilion built alongside the original building by Patrick Gwynne in 1967. The redevelopment of the Grade II* listed building unlocks the full potential of a complex site that had developed incrementally over 270 years. It has created additional space the theatre urgently needed in order to appeal to and engage a wider community, bring more people into the building and create the opportunity to increase revenue, enabling it to be more financially resilient in the future.
Company: De Matos Ryan
Project: York Theatre Royal
Project Location: York, England.
What was the client’s brief?
York Theatre Royal was founded in 1744 and is one of the UK’s oldest producing theatres, serving audiences of all ages and welcoming over 200,000 visitors each year.
The buildings are Grade II* listed and a wonderful patchwork of periods starting with the Georgians and culminating in 1968 with a Patrick Gwynne Modernist glass and concrete vaulted foyer extension.
The project needed to unlock the full potential of a complex Grade II* listed site that had been developed incrementally over 270 years with the aim to engage a wider community, bring more people into the building, ensuring increased revenue, enabling York Theatre Royal to be more financially resilient in the future.
What inspired the design of the project?
We focused on three fundamental actions. Firstly, to improve the customer experience by creating the conditions for a better welcome, improved access and enhancing the audience experience in the main auditorium by increasing the rake of the seating to improve sight lines.
Secondly, to create the context for a sustainable business by making a more commercial front of house, but also, by making efficiency savings through backstage technical and storage upgrades, there was an aspiration to reduce operational costs and improve safety.
Thirdly, to improve the scope for creative output by creating the conditions for a wider scope of artistic possibilities by expanding the potential of the staging and improving acoustic separation between the main spaces in the theatre.
We applied the '7 lenses', a strategy we have developed at De Matos Ryan to scrutinise the benefit of every intervention and make a judgement about what to prioritise.
All aspects of the building - the front of house and auditorium - have been improved with a new contemporary language that binds all periods together without stifling them, bringing a sense of cohesion to the whole site. The most demonstrable changes are within the Front of House spaces with the glazing of the Victorian colonnade. Occupied by the café it gives an animated face to the street akin to a storefront.
The toughest hurdle was the discovery of archaeology below the stalls and new foyer that was of greater significance than previously anticipated. This added to an already tight construction programme as more time was required to properly record the findings. The Georgians had built their theatre on top of the foundations of the 13th century medieval Hospital of St Peters. From extensive archive research, we had overlaid the plans of each historic period in order to understand how the theatre had evolved and, as such, we knew where the medieval column bases would be if we dug down. What we had not anticipated is that the Georgians had left this ground absolutely intact. The ability to sift through the layers of fine deposits between these columns and walls, over such a large city centre area gave the community a unique insight into their past.
Why did you enter the SBID International Design Awards?
We entered the project in the category of Public Space Design because the project demonstrates successfully how the public sector should be operating under increasing financial constraints. The public sector needs to review and upgrade its assets and capital investment architectural interventions need to be considered more carefully through the lenses of resilience and sustainability. Our careful and strategic upgrade of York Theatre Royal has created a more welcoming space, which is used by all members of the community – not just theatre goers - at all times of the day. It demonstrates how culture can operate as an intersection for people to meet and help to cement a community and develop a strong sense of place in our increasingly homogeneous cities.
Questions answered by Angus Morrogh Ryan, Director of De Matos Ryan.
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If you missed last week's Project of the Week with the opulent Cumberland Art Gallery, Hampton Court Palace click here to see more
Entries were received, finalists deliberated and the winners of the SBID International Design Awards 2017 have been announced! Click here to see the full list.
We hope you feel inspired! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
De Matos Ryan| SBID International Design Awards 2017
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