A total refurbishment of a top-floor tenement flat. This project involved stripping out all existing fitted furniture, the kitchen, bathroom, central heating and electrics, and removing sections of internal wall to improve the bathroom and kitchen arrangement. We also undertook extensive design development to fit in an additional bedroom. The owner wanted to maintain the separate kitchen and sitting room so we had to look elsewhere to find space for this.

The obvious solution was in the roof, turning the attic into habitable space, however the logistical and technical complexities this would require exceeded the client’s available budget. So our attention turned to the box room, located in the centre of the flat. With no external walls or windows the only solution was to bring light in from the roof above. The design resulted in a compact room plan with an impressively high ceiling, extending all the way up to the main roof 6 metres above. We modelled the room in 3D to explore options for the shape of ceiling, with our aim to make a virtue of the unusual volume, creating something sculptural and uplifting. The resulting room is affectionately referred to by the owners as ‘the chapel’.