studio KA

Studio KA is working in collaboration with Wendover on the design of nine apartments in a Grade II listed, former hotel bordering Hyde Park in Lancaster Gate.

The building, originally three, large townhouses, is in disrepair. The historic rooms have been incrementally divided over years for ad hoc use as a hotel and hostel. The approach to the existing fabric is to preserve what is left and significant. Elements of fabric which have been lost are joyfully reinterpreted, rather than being reinstated.

Rather than subdividing the grand front rooms, lightweight timber screens are inserted so that the historic proportions and cornice detailing of the room is maintained. In the contemporary, new build areas, these screens are translated into painted, paneled surfaces, influenced by the work of Imi Knoebel.

Client — Wendover Development

Status — RIBA Stage 5, under construction

Budget — multi-million pound (not disclosed)

Location — Lancaster Gate, London; London Borough of Westminster

Collaborators — Wendover Studio (architect), E+M Tecnica (MEP engineer), Price & Myers (structural engineer), Mosaic (AV consultant)

Photography — Fred Haworth

The project begins in an unusual place: the internal finishes and fittings of the listed building had already been stripped out, revealing the historic structure.

Under a tight budget, the project avoids structural modifications, rather paint is used as the main design tool. Historic features are reinstated (as required by the council) but are painted over in colour so that they are treated equally to other surfaces in the house. In doing so, the reinstated historic elements act as the background, rather than foreground, to the project.

The house was also repaired using historic techniques of lathe and lime plaster, and upgraded using contemporary natural building materials such as a new compacted glass slab in the basement and natural fibre insulation to the roof to improve the thermal performance of the house.

Throughout the project, Studio KA collaborated closely with a heritage consultant and the local council, with listed building consent awarded with no pre-commencement conditions.

Client — Private client

Status — completed, February 2024

Budget — not disclosed

Location — Islington, London; London Borough of Islington

Collaborators — Pegasus Group (heritage), SD Structures (structural engineer), m3A (contractor)

Photography — Fred Haworth (existing), Matthew Blunderfield

The shopfront on the street corner will become a cafe and bar, promoting Spanish produce and wines in London.

The ground floor will have two convivial rooms with opening sash windows and tables facing the street. On the lower ground floor is a chef’s table with a central table for cooking and gathering.

Externally, a series of colours are used to highlight key architectural elements. The external signage was developed as simple and distinctive lettering, delicately filling all of the clerestory windows to provide the bar with distinctive character.

Without impacting the usable space, the services in the cafe and chef’s table were designed in close collaboration with the hospitality consultant and MEP engineer.

Client — Private client

Status — RIBA Stage 4, on hold

Budget — not disclosed

Location — Fitzrovia, London; London Borough of Westminster

Collaborators — John Morgan (graphic design), E+M Tecnica (MEP engineer), Redbranch Hospitality (hospitality consultant), CCE (catering consultant)

Two new rooms are added to the building to expand the living space. A large beam marks the point of leaving behind the old building and moving into the new.

The facades mirror each other facing into the garden. The grey and silver materials are composed as a flat surface to give decoration through differentiated textures.

The Victorian house was upgraded with natural fibre insulation below the existing floorboards, which dramatically improves the thermal performance of the existing rooms.

Client — Private client

Status — completed, July 2023

Budget — £200,000

Location — Leyton, London; London Borough of Waltham Forest

Collaborators — Multilateral (structural engineer), AIS (building control)

Photography — Matthew Blunderfield

In collaboration with the University of Cambridge Architecture department.

The demolition of Development House, a concrete frame building in the centre of London, calls for alternative proposals.

The building has already undergone one round of demolition and transformation. In the 1970s, the facade was stripped back to its concrete frame and redressed in stone with new windows and interior fittings. In recent years, the vacant building has been squatted, and parts of the interior fabric have been removed by the squatters.

In collaboration with Purpose Group, the meanwhile user of the building, Studio KA held an exhibition in the building displaying alternative projects for the building that avoided demolition. The series of projects showed how new work space could be made by only selectively removing parts of the existing fabric rather than full demolition.

Holding the exhibition and displaying the large-scale model in the Development House also helped to highlight the material, social and urban value of the condemned building.

Status — exhibition held in July 2023

Location — Old Street, London

Collaborators — University of Cambridge, with thanks to AHMM and Purpose Group

Photography — Fred Haworth

Existing elements in the house in Lincolnshire, such as the steel lintels and bricks are recycled. As part of the process, detailed and coloured demolition drawings (rather than just red lines as is typical for demolition drawing) show how materials can be removed, salvaged and reused elsewhere in the project.

Like a gardener would find useful stones in one part of the garden and move them elsewhere for another use, the bricks from the demolished garden room become the plinth for the new timber structure along the rear of the house to form a series of exterior garden rooms.

Client — Private client

Status — RIBA Stage 5, under construction

Budget — £200,000

Location — Stamford, Lincolnshire

Collaborators — SD Structures (structural engineer)

The project started with extensive research into the history of the house in the Hackney Archives. The research revealed that the Grade II listed building had fallen into disrepair by the early 1990s, was purchased by a housing trust, and was then fully remodelled and remade. None of the historic internal features are original; they are copies using contemporary building methods.

How to treat a listed building with a non-historic building fabric remade in a historicist style?

This is the starting point for the project, where a series of contemporary interventions are inserted to act as the spine wall through the middle of the building. The spine connects the front and back rooms on each floor which currently have no relationship to each other, and amplifies views across the house into the square and garden.

Historicist detailing is removed throughout the house but the Georgian design principles – vertical proportion symmetry, light – are retained and enhanced in a contemporary interior. The result is a surprising but intuitive relationship between the reworked interior and the original façade.

To the rear, the existing extension is remodelled, retaining as much brickwork as possible into a small ‘tower’ subservient to the main house. Demolition is minimised and the existing masonry continues to act as the load bearing structure for the proposal. Internally, a lightweight timber structure will extend the rear extension - using the same structure as the original Georgian house.

Client — private client

Status — RIBA Stage 4

Budget — £500,000

Location — Clapton, London; London Borough of Hackney

Collaborators — Simple Works (structural engineer), The Heritage Practice (heritage consultant)

Photography — Fred Haworth

Arlington Square was built as part of the Clothworkers Estate between 1846-1858 to provide housing for middle-class commuters who were attracted to Islington at the beginning of the 19th century. The houses were developed alongside the formal gardens at the centre of the square.

The house follows the typical historic arrangement of front and back rooms. Several decades of alterations have reduced the architectural clarity of the original plan. The project will restore the front and back rooms as living spaces by relocating all bathrooms to a taller closet wing tower.

Two new volumes will be inserted in the garden: a garden room and kitchen at the rear of the house and a pavilion at the end of the garden. The two volumes will face each other with the trees in between.

The project will thermally upgrade the historic building fabric using natural materials. New timber frames to the extensions will be visible in the interiors.

Client — private client

Status — RIBA Stage 2

Budget — not disclosed

Location — Islington, London; London Borough of Islington

Collaborators — Simple Works (structural engineer), The Heritage Practice (heritage consultant)

Photography — Fred Haworth

In collaboration with the University of Cambridge Architecture department.

The former department store stands vacant in a prominent location on Barkers Pool, Sheffield.

The concrete framed 1960s building holds an important place in the collective imagination of the city. Talking to people about their memory of the store was the first step in understanding the building’s potential for reuse. A large scale model was set up in front of the shop windows to start conversation and engagement with local residents.

The proposals for the building were shared with the public at an event organised by the Sheffield Society of Architects and the Sheffield Civic Trust, who are campaigning for the reuse rather than the demolition of the building. The event was covered by local and national media, including the Architectural Journal (see here).

Location — Sheffield, UK

Collaborators — University of Cambridge