TW Residence

Sculptural stair anchors layered, loft-style Victorian conversion.

A sensitive reinvention of an early Victorian warehouse into an art-led, loft-style home, centred on a sculptural stair and natural materials that honour and layer the building's history.

TW RESIDENCE reimagines an early Victorian warehouse in Kennington as a contemporary one-off home while respectfully retaining its layered history. The brief sought generous, flexible living centred on art, reinstating volume and flow without erasing earlier interventions. The design restores loft-like proportions around a dramatic double-height heart, framing key pieces from the clients' modern photography collection. Old, new and recent alterations are purposefully composed, turning prior quirks into a readable timeline and embedding sustainability through careful retention rather than wholesale replacement.

A sculptural stair, inspired by Barbara Hepworth, anchors the scheme. Its clay-rendered outer shell and warm timber inner face create a tactile promenade, cantilevered to sweep through the space. Openings were re-edited to enhance sightlines and daylight, with a discreet glazed vestibule providing privacy from the lane while heightening the sense of arrival. Material volumes in stone, timber and clay organise everyday functions, while display walls and bespoke soft furnishings by Nicola Mardas support an art-led domesticity without resorting to pastiche.

The outcome is a robust yet urbane home that feels both composed and lived-in: practical, comfortable and adaptable, with strong connection to a restored wall garden. Judges commended the elegant reinvention of historic layers and the balanced orchestration of daylight and texture, noting how the project achieves contextual richness with restraint. It shows how conservation-minded thinking can be expressive, and how character and sustainability can coexist within a sub-GBP1m one-off residence.

The judges said: “Exquisite reinvention of a multitude of historic layers into a new reincarnation of a contemporary home.”