Imperial Hall

Budget: £150,000 Completed This flat refurbishment was in a grand Grade-II listed building just adjacent to the Old Street roundabout (Silicone Roundabout) in London N1. Starting with a very poor residential conversion from the 1990s we stripped away the cheap plasterboard partitioning to reveal layers of brick and steel from both the original Edwardian fabric and the rebuilding work from heavy bomb damage from both World Wars. Although the main living space was generously laid out the flat suffered from poorly sized rooms and wasted spaces. We were very taken with the juxtaposition of the ‘arrested decay’ of the Frankenstein’s Monster patchwork of the building’s internal history, whilst the imposingly grand red limestone external facade presented an immaculate impression of imperial grandeur and pomposity. Our client had lived in Japan for several years and this formed a major influence in the design approach. Not so much in a literal superficial sense but in specific references to both vintage anime and convivial bathing traditions that the client enjoyed and wished to incorporate in the new concept. The living room was flanked on both sides by two former stair wells and these formed very narrow rooms that proved difficult to plan and use efficiently. With the kitchen on one side and on the other, we formed the Japanese-style bathing and relaxation area incorporating a large soaking tub for several people that juts in to the living room and main bedroom, thus allowing interaction between bathers and the main living spaces. In Japan there is an ancient tradition of communal bathing, done in bath houses and these meetings offer conversation and social interaction that we duplicated here. The relaxation room incorporates tatami matting for post-bathing time and spaces for growing plants and herbs. This is concealed by a secret door that recalls the ‘go anywhere door’ of a children’s anime character where one could travel anywhere through this magic door. The client wished to see the sun rise from the bed and in doing so we created the ’sun-viewing window’, again a loose reference to the moon windows of Japanese gardens. All of these curved shapes all coalesced in to the flowing woodwork and joinery that ties the spaces together.