Priory Terrace

The apartment is for a psychoanalyst with a brief to create a private dwelling, plus a study for writing and a library/ consulting room for seeing clients. This required spaces and rooms to be carefully choreographed to delineate places of work and private living.

The challenge was to transform an uninspiring flat with restricted loft space, into a generous, light filled apartment, whilst being limited in scope to extend.
The new living space was opened up both in terms of its height and width. A double height space, around which all areas of living are oriented, is crowned by a large roof light, carefully detailed as a simple aperture to strengthen the contrast of sculpted roof form with the sky or views beyond. A framed opening with shutters allows the bedroom to be either part of the living space below or closed off. A new staircase rises up towards the bedroom where a small rear dormer has been added and an outside terrace. Morning sun enters via the roof light near the bed head, offering views of the tower blocks and street below. To the west, and the evening sun, the terrace is conceived as a timber lined box, inserted into the roof. A flush mounted rain shower reveals the internal timber decking as a duckboard to a shower area.
In summary the project seeks to create multi layered spaces, dealing with issues of privacy and openness, creating views within itself and outwards to the urban context beyond.

Project undertaken under former name Allsop Gollings Architects