Alaska

Location: Borough, London
Client: Private
Status: Complete

This warehouse conversion is set within the former Alaska factory designed by the architect Wallis Gilbert in 1869, who also designed the Hoover buildings in London.

For this project, we took an existing poorly planned warehouse apartment in Bermondsey, stripped it back and reconfigured the service areas to maximise the usable area. This created a divisable space between living and sleeping and controlled by a large sliding door. Instead of creating corridors, the large sliding door correspond to the different activities, creating spacial flexibility and continuity. This provides a sense of openness while maintaining the privacy of the bedroom.

The apartment is lit from both sides while the position of the bed is concealed from the entrance and the feeling of space and light is apparent. Additionally, the kitchen has been repositioned so as not to dominate the living space but to be subservient. The apartment feels like a single connected space.