Coffey Architects has redesigned an apartment housed within a 19th century former school house in Clerkenwell. The approach was to insert a piece of \u2018inhabited joinery\u2019 into the apartment in one of the old classrooms with ceiling heights reaching over four metres\u00a0and plenty of original character. The sculptural intervention is...
Coffey Architects’ Apartment Block is a simple, clever intervention in timber into an existing apartment in Clerkenwell. The design is a celebration of joinery and craft, both integral to the studio’s work.Coffey Architects’ Apartment Block is a simple, clever intervention in timber into an existing apartment in Clerkenwell. The design is a celebration of joinery and craft, both integral to the studio’s work.
Located on a pleasant campus of trees and gardens in the midst of Clerkenwell Conservation Area, the Grade II-listed school-house was built in 1892 by TJ Bailey and converted to residential and commercial use in 2000. The conversion of the classroom into a two-storey home with a mezzanine level, had left a cramped and dark space, prone to collecting clutter.
Coffey stepped in to open up the space, introducing some much-needed light. The architects stripped back anything in the way of the original architecture, cut back the existing mezzanine level to create a double-height living space, and relocated the staircase to the side of the plan. New voids of space were revealed that were ripe with potential.
A process of replanning, redesigning and resculpting began. The small kitchen is tucked beneath the mezzanine. Lightly striped oak timber joinery lines the walls and hides neat storage spaces behind it. While sliding timber pocket doors conveniently reveal and conceal the snug downstairs and the bedroom upstairs.
Reached by the gracefully processing pine staircase, the upper level is lit by the three metre high sash windows, framed by timber shutters lined with linen reminiscent of Japanese screens. At the top of the stairs a slim study area stretches out before the bedroom.
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