Add To Collection
Add to Collection
THE CONVERSATION ROOM
THE CONVERSATION ROOM
London, United Kingdom
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
THE CONVERSATION ROOM
London, United Kingdom
What kind of interior ought one to design for a single, Yorkshire born, coal trader with fluent Spanish, a history of motor biking, a passion for opera, charitable interests in Saigon and a love of the colour purple?
The apartment was built in the 1980’s with a narrow sitting room and a kitchen alongside. The original idea was simply to move the kitchen and thereby increase the width of the sitting room.
Lengthy discussions between architect and client, however, unearthed some more specific requirements: The created room was to be for conversation, for reading, for listening to music, for movie watching and for relaxed pottering. The design was also to incorporate the glazed pottery head of a helmeted motorcyclist, an unframed purple oil painting of three hatted Peruvians and a small collection of historic mugs which had belonged to the client’s grandmother. There was to be enough space for a large collection of books and CD’s, sufficient storage for about twenty bottles of wine and the barest of kitchen essentials; the client takes some three hundred flights each year; drinks coffee but rarely cooks.
In response to the above, architect Paul Vonberg sought first to create a womb-like interior which would provide a deep sense of home.
Next, it was decided to pursue the richness obtainable from a very specific bespoke design, tightly tailored to both use and to the collection of artifacts. So, the timber lined drum is articulated by a series of illuminated display cases and other architectural ‘events’, each of which has either a functional or a representational role, highlighting an aspect of the client’s personality.
Layers of meaning were added by the use of particular materials and motifs. The black and cracked resin finishes of the Lobby evoke the coal seams from which issues the client’s income. Meanwhile, the curved and lined glass screen suggests that the hygienically white kitchen behind might be just one huge coffee maker. Similarly, the curved step adjacent to the CD Library offers a podium from which music might be ‘conducted' or given air guitar accompaniment.
Then there are historical associations; the spaces are configured according to historic principles, especially the Eighteenth Century French idea of poché, whereby subsidiary spaces are fitted within the thickness of walls enclosing a more significant, often circular, space.
The outside world has not been forgotten. Not only is the scheme mindful of the planet, using increased thermal insulation, low voltage lighting, sustainable timbers and simple mechanics, it is also acutely aware of its location in London. The apartment faces directly across the Thames to Canary Wharf which, at night, has much of the romance of New York. The aircraft lights are echoed in the colour changing LED's which illuminate etched glass screens in front of the existing windows.
And finally, the force of the flowing river is felt strongly in the apartment; it appears not only to have tugged the two window bays out of the geometric certainty of the drum, but even to have pulled the maple floor boards of those bays into a tapered, rather than the usual parallel, pattern.
The result of such a specific brief and a relatively free rein is a handmade, thoughtful, richly detailed and highly personal interior which contributes not only convenience and comfort, but also resonates with associations and meaning.
The apartment was built in the 1980’s with a narrow sitting room and a kitchen alongside. The original idea was simply to move the kitchen and thereby increase the width of the sitting room.
Lengthy discussions between architect and client, however, unearthed some more specific requirements: The created room was to be for conversation, for reading, for listening to music, for movie watching and for relaxed pottering. The design was also to incorporate the glazed pottery head of a helmeted motorcyclist, an unframed purple oil painting of three hatted Peruvians and a small collection of historic mugs which had belonged to the client’s grandmother. There was to be enough space for a large collection of books and CD’s, sufficient storage for about twenty bottles of wine and the barest of kitchen essentials; the client takes some three hundred flights each year; drinks coffee but rarely cooks.
In response to the above, architect Paul Vonberg sought first to create a womb-like interior which would provide a deep sense of home.
Next, it was decided to pursue the richness obtainable from a very specific bespoke design, tightly tailored to both use and to the collection of artifacts. So, the timber lined drum is articulated by a series of illuminated display cases and other architectural ‘events’, each of which has either a functional or a representational role, highlighting an aspect of the client’s personality.
Layers of meaning were added by the use of particular materials and motifs. The black and cracked resin finishes of the Lobby evoke the coal seams from which issues the client’s income. Meanwhile, the curved and lined glass screen suggests that the hygienically white kitchen behind might be just one huge coffee maker. Similarly, the curved step adjacent to the CD Library offers a podium from which music might be ‘conducted' or given air guitar accompaniment.
Then there are historical associations; the spaces are configured according to historic principles, especially the Eighteenth Century French idea of poché, whereby subsidiary spaces are fitted within the thickness of walls enclosing a more significant, often circular, space.
The outside world has not been forgotten. Not only is the scheme mindful of the planet, using increased thermal insulation, low voltage lighting, sustainable timbers and simple mechanics, it is also acutely aware of its location in London. The apartment faces directly across the Thames to Canary Wharf which, at night, has much of the romance of New York. The aircraft lights are echoed in the colour changing LED's which illuminate etched glass screens in front of the existing windows.
And finally, the force of the flowing river is felt strongly in the apartment; it appears not only to have tugged the two window bays out of the geometric certainty of the drum, but even to have pulled the maple floor boards of those bays into a tapered, rather than the usual parallel, pattern.
The result of such a specific brief and a relatively free rein is a handmade, thoughtful, richly detailed and highly personal interior which contributes not only convenience and comfort, but also resonates with associations and meaning.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.