A waterside building is transformed by Emrys Architects’ ingenious interventions
Emrys Architects’ comprehensive renovation of a 145-square-metre four-storey building in Camden, north London, has transformed a dilapidated former massage parlour and dingy flats into a characterful home with marine accents that reference its canal-side setting.
The architect was initially commissioned to create a duplex apartment from the ground-floor commercial unit and a largely windowless lower-ground floor flat, but the project expanded to encompass the whole building when the client acquired the first-floor flat, and the owner of the second-floor flat also commissioned a refurbishment.
After stripping out the poorly subdivided building and stabilising it with additional steelwork, the architects reinvented the interior space of the lower floors, inserting a tall lightwell that brings daylight to the lower-ground floor from a newly installed shopfront window facing the street. Large porthole windows bring additional light to the lower ground bedroom, while smaller, darker spaces are given over to a series of steam rooms and bathrooms. On the upper floors, full-height glazed doors open onto new balconies overlooking the canal.
To contend with the compact, asymmetric plan-form Emrys incorporated sliding partitions that allow the lower-ground floor to be opened up as a study or play room, or enclosed to create a private bedroom with a concealed bed sliding from behind a wall. The first floor also features partitions go create either an open plan office or an enclosed bedroom. Within the open-plan ground-floor living area, the back-lit signage of the massage parlour is displayed above a staircase.
Emrys’ plans for the second-floor flat include an additional upper storey with a folded zinc roof, which has yet to be completed. Other alterations to the envelope are in brick and render – chosen to relate sympathetically to the conservation area setting – with additions such as new windows glazed balcony balustrades given a subtly contemporary expression to distinguish them from the original structure.
Additional Images
