12-19 POWIS MEWS

Notting Hill, London, UK

The building, 12 – 19 Powis Mews was built in the nineteenth century and housed the stables for Powis Terrace. Later it was turned into a warehouse and workshops.

This development project has transformed an under-used and dilapidated building into three residences and seven business studios.

A new top storey has a wrap-around glass frontage which contrasts with the original brickwork and is designed to be visually lightweight from the street. From inside, the glass walls at this height, maximise your sense of the elements – rain beats against the panes, sunlight floods in.

The building is 900 square metres, 56 metres long and only 4.5 metres deep. The challenge architecturally has been to plan the building in an interesting way that also functions efficiently and maximises the depth. Corridors are non-existent and all rooms look onto the mews.

Several of the details refer to the warehouse character of the original building, and for this reason are purposefully basic, verging on crude. Windows are galvanised steel, shutters are aluminium and motorised, a residential staircase is cast concrete, original floorboards have been kept. In one house a swimming pool has been installed with tiling by the artist Richard Woods.

Project featured on:

Space Magazine >

Photographs by Johan Dehlin (3-11) and Sophie Hicks (1,2,12)