Studio Ben Allen makes Room for One Extra inside Barbican flat

Studio Ben Allen has up to date a flat on London’s brutalist Barbican property to function a vibrant central quantity that features a mattress, fold-out desk and additional cupboard space.

Beforehand host to only one bed room, the condominium has been reconfigured by Studio Ben Allen to accommodate a toddler’s bed room – a function that lends the undertaking its title of Room For One Extra.

“The consumer was eager that the intervention would relate to the structure of the Barbican and supply a excessive diploma of flexibility to permit the rising household to proceed dwelling of their a lot liked however modest-sized flat,” defined the studio.

As an alternative of tampering with the condominium’s structural format, the studio determined to erect a full-height, multifunctional quantity in the course of the ground plan.

The grey-painted quantity – which is crafted from birch plywood – has been punctuated to function two teal-blue niches, their arched type supposed to imitate the window form of a number of the Barbican property’s residences.

One area of interest encompasses a cherry-red desk that the inhabitants can fold down on days they wish to make money working from home, whereas the opposite has been fitted with a few cabinets the place ornaments and books could be displayed.

Beneath there are a sequence of storage cabinets. Every one is completed with recessed round handles that should resemble the spherical, stepped wells that seem throughout the property’s pond.

A disc-shaped mirror with a semi-circular shelf working by way of its centre has additionally been fitted close by.

“It creates an interaction with the underlying arched and round geometry of the Barbican and, from the living-room seating-area, supplies a mirrored view of the adjoining Barbican faccade itself,” defined the observe.

The quantity additionally helps partially conceal the kid’s bed room, which has been created on the rear of the condominium’s current eating space.

Studio Ben Allen inserts pale plywood kids’s bed room into Barbican flat

Inside there’s a teal bunk-bed that is accessed by a brief flight of stairs. The decrease steps could be pushed again to type a small desk the place the kid can learn or do homework.

Beneath the mattress there may be additionally a chunky armchair upholstered in grass-green material – this may be moved round to free-up room for play or storage when needed.

A newly-fitted sliding door can be utilized to utterly shut off this room from the remainder of the house.

This is not the primary time that Studio Ben Allen has labored on a Barbican property – again in 2017 the architects overhauled a flat on the property to incorporate sleeping quarters for the purchasers’ two kids.

“These two kids’s bed room initiatives are underlined by a way of playful adaptability during which makes use of are questioned or doubled up,” the studio’s founder, Ben Allen, advised Dezeen.

“We hope to problem the norms of what these objects ought to do or how they operate and, by way of their adaptability, enable a extra considerate and inquisitive use of the area each for teenagers and adults – who are sometimes as enthusiastic about utilizing these areas as their kids.”

Images is by French + Tye.

Challenge credit:

Design: Studio Ben Allen
Design group: Ben Allen, Marco Nicastro, Massine Yallaoui
Fabricators: Prime Notch Joinery