Highbury Apartment | Holloway Li

The idea for the flat is to use it as an experimental ground for the practice to develop ideas for their own product ranges and domestic design solutions, all from the chrysalis of the small but perfectly formed apartment in North London, set in a converted Victorian house. 

Opening up the space was of utmost importance. Removing the dividing walls which originally paritioned the room, the newly large space permitted more freedom in its open plan. The creation of this bright area was enhanced by the installation of two new windows, creating a triple aspect room for living, entertaining and, with the decision to install a bathtub, bathing. 

This dialogue between the original and the modern permeates the scheme through the use of homogenizing colour; 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 colour palette as well as it adventurous materiality, deftly balancing heritage with the extravagance of a hospitality interior. 

THE KEBAB SHOP KITCHEN

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. 

The language of the curves developed through the metal work of the kitchen is echoed throughout the limestone skirting, continuous along the perimeter of the main living room. This detail articulates the studio’s interest in the contemporary application of stone. 

PRODUCTS AND THEIR PLACEMENT

Custom made pieces of furniture populate the project. From the sleek resin table to the bulbous T4 chair (that was launched at this years’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 re-purposing of samples and creative use of off-cuts, the emphasis of the products isn’t the studio’s penchant for colour, but their sustainable agenda

Photography: Edmund Dabney (https://www.edabney.com/)