Howick Place

Apartment
London - United Kingdom, 2010
Sebastien Segers -  Howick Place

Owner: Private
Location: Victoria, London - United Kingdom
Programme: refurbishing a flat in an old building
Scope: Design & construction management assistance
Designer: Marc Newson
Design Architect: Sébastien Segers
Executive Architect: Squire & Partners
Area : 300 sqm
Completion: 2010

Photo Credit: Sergio Chavez

An old Post Office dating back to 1894 in the Victoria District, near Buckingham Palace, has been housing for some years art galleries, artists, stylists, etc. The challenge for Sébastien Segers is to design very fluid spaces inside this Victorian building. The 300 square metres flat has very few right angles and has only eight windows. The Architect creates two volumes, one being 5,50 metres high and the other one 4 metres. The first volume has a free open layout where are located the sitting room, the dining room and the kitchen. A mezzanine creates an extra level. Tradition and contemporaneity are mixed with no inhibition. A huge pebble wall, as a reference to the American villas of the 50’s, an ancient type of parquet made of solid oak large lathes and a chimney bring warmth to this large area, the walls are coated with a plain rendering. The furniture in the kitchen is pastel green lacquer: this colour is one of the colours of the range of colours prepared by Marc Newson for Smeg. A huge marble worktable connects the sitting room area to the kitchen.

The second volume houses the private area. In this area everything is minutely calculated: two bedrooms are set against two bathrooms and a library. These have skylights. Cupboards separate the rooms from one another. The huge bathroom for the Parents, with a very high ceiling and made of marble as if one was in a quarry, is softened with rounded angles.