Sutherland Avenue is a long and large tree-lined avenue stretching from the Harrow Road to St John’s Wood. Its façades are ornate renderings in red brick but there is little sense of domesticity or community. All this changes radically on entering the building because un-beknown to the passer-by these buildings are grouped around park sized communal gardens full of trees, shrubs and families at play – as such it is an ideal residential setting.
The apartment wants to turn its attention from the street towards the view of the lively gardens to the south. The street is therefore screened behind frosted glass and is forgotten. The volume of the apartment is stripped of all partitions, the walls are plastered in a white travertine finish and then the space is interrupted by a single free-standing box containing all the services of daily life: cooking, bathing, washing, storage. The box defines two main residual spaces: the large living area and the smaller bedroom interlocked by a tall but narrow hallway. Frosted glass doors slide from the box to enclose the bedroom from either the hall or its bathroom or both. A further frosted glass wall encloses the shower room from the living area drawing light deep into the internal bathroom. The light from the garden is active, bright and warm, but the light in the bedroom is passive, cool and soft. Leaving the slightly raised platform of the bedroom and heading for the kitchen opens up framed views of the garden. Light, view and space flow together.
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