Mayfair
HASA Architects have collaborated closely with their client to develop a contemporary design that modernises the first floor of this five-storey Grade II listed Georgian terrace while respecting the character and design intent of the original building.
By focusing on space, light and making a series of sensitive insertions combined with a carefully curated material palette, HASA Architects have created distinct new spaces alongside the original features of the building. These new insertions – freestanding joinery, panelling, and sliding and folding planes – along with the alterations, can be clearly read as a new layer that respects the existing while enhancing light and spaciousness.
The fabric and layout of the building have been used to inform and enrich the design. Insensitive additions have been removed and the principal floor, or ‘piano nobile’, has been expertly repaired to reveal its original proportion, structure and dignity. Months of intricate work involved the removal of years’ worth of paint and the restoration of the original mouldings and dentilled cornices.
The new stair with its steel wall forms the dramatic centrepiece to the property. To overcome the narrowness of the existing stairwell the design extends the entrances to the stairs at either end in plate steel resulting in a sculptural blade-like insertion.
Careful attention was also paid to the distances and junctions between the historic and contemporary layers to ensure old and new quietly co-exist and complement each other both visually and programmatically.
