Vine Architecture Studio’s reworking of a compact rooftop apartment harmonises space and finishes

Buildings.

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Nicholas Worley

Vine Architecture Studio has re-built a top-floor apartment in east London’s Mile End to provide a light, open single-bedroom home that takes advantage of two external terraces. Accessed via a stairwell shared with offices below, the existing flat was cramped and in a poor state of repair, and within the scope of a radical refurbishment, the architect’s ambition was to reconfigure its proportions, arrangement and flow.

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The intersecting loadbearing masonry walls that previously subdivided the skewed square plan into equal quarters have been largely retained, but these now define four living functions of washing/cooking, dining, relaxing and sleeping. A small floor level change and the valley between two parallel double-pitched roofs help to demarcate the interconnected spaces.

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Two arrays of north-facing rooflights are aligned in the dual-pitched roofs, whose incline is in part determined by the angle and path of the sun so as to balance maximum daylighting against minimum solar gain. Motorised blinds are fitted between the rafters and hidden in a soffit pocket in the ceiling. 

The newly-built brick north facade incorporates a frameless picture window with brickwork reveals, and wide slim-line sliding doors that open via a level threshold onto a spacious external deck. Full-height sliding double doors, made from triple-layer spruce panels, provide a wide opening to the bedroom. The same stained spruce panels are used for the adjacent kitchen cabinetry. The smoked-oak flooring that serves to unify the whole apartment, is complemented by stained spruce rafters – part-exposed and part-concealed – that express the roof structure, while joinery details are in oiled oak. Durable timber decking will silver with age to complement the internal oak flooring. The pale brick and mortar of the new rear facade are offset by a vivid yellow spiral staircase that connects the deck to a small upper terrace, set over the bathroom and kitchen area, with rooftop views over east London.

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