Clapham Refurbishment
Shape Architecture has started on the reworking of a large house in Elms Road near Clapham Common. We competed against four other practices who work in Clapham and were selected on the basis of our experience of taking existing homes and through thoughtful and creative design, transforming the interior into a light filled contemporary home with a variety of key features ranging from elegant stairs to frameless glass extensions.
The house is interesting as it has over time had a number of smaller projects undertaken but it lacks a coherent approach.
The principal area of design is the creation of a new feature stair that would open up the ground floor onto the basement and help fill the middle of the basement plan with light. The present stair does none of these things. We have removed the plasterboard enclosure and replaced this with internal glass screens and inserted an elegant stair with open risers. We are also investigating the lining of an existing wall with opaque glass to provide further reflective surfaces and behind this would be fixed a series of lights so when the lights such that the glass cube with stair within will glow like a light box. Other measures around the stairs include the addition of structural glass panels in the ground floor hallway.
In addition we are looking at replacing the existing glass conservatory with a mix of thin frame and frameless glass working with the glazing company Maxlight.
We are also looking throughout the property to create a variety of new areas for additional storage and also upgrading bathroom spaces and adding en-suite bathrooms.
