Designers Statement
Floating above the streets of Soho and Fitzrovia, hidden from view but with the most spectacular views of the West End, is a penthouse, in fact two penthouses that were fused together to create a home for an American couple and their art collection, as well as pit stop for their extensive family.
There could not be a more ideal brief but the main challenge is not apparent by looking at the photos. Tearing the walls down in a brand-new flat is more difficult than can be imagined, as those walls hide all the complexities of modern-day building, but those walls had to come down to achieve the layouts we wanted. Such technical work took determination and detailed overseeing with the various experts to make it work.
The joy was working with a couple, who as art collectors, were willing to dare the impossible and were open-minded toward solutions which might not be conventional.
As well as communal and entertaining spaces, the couple required a set of rooms that they could retreat to and call their own. The space allocated for this was long and narrow and yet had to accommodate a library, an extensive dressing room, a bathroom that could be classed as a leisure space, and a bedroom. We achieved this by interconnecting the rooms with double doors that could be left open to create the sense of space or closed to create individual sensuous jewel boxes that could delight in their own right.
This project was a great adventure for Studio Hopwood and has given us a warm glow of achievement. We’d like to share with you some of the images and their stories in the captions below as well as a series of journal posts.
