01•2023
01•2023
Cast House
Cast House
EBBA completed the refurbishment and extension to a Victorian home in East London. The project looked to maximise the opportunities for light while creating small moments of calm.The result is characterised by intricate timber detailing and the textures found in the floors and the cast facade; a celebration of finding ways of making more with less.
The new large open plan kitchen with adjacent dining area benefits from framed views to the garden and beyond. A vaulted ceiling introduces a unique feature inspired by roman arches and the client’s interest in travel.The continuous tiled floor runs from the garden into the living space helping to connect and extend the rooms, while making the feeling of expansiveness.The lowered section of the living space and the kitchen are divided by a changing level helping to add a different atmosphere within the same space.
Similar detailing in a refined yet textured palette follow upstairs into the rest of the house. A calm master bedroom leads to a walk-in wardrobe and ensuite. Everywhere there has been special attention to making the most of joinery and linings to elevate the feel of each room.
The feature facade is cast in a pigmented eco-cement with a subtle brown tone, finished in a technique that brings out the aggregate reminiscent of Brutalist architecture. Between the rougher elements are a series of screens that act as pivots that can open wide, making better connections to the garden. Altogether the extension has dramatically enhanced the quality of the spaces and provided an architecturally-ambitious project for the young couple, newborn and their Dachshund, Betty.
Title: Cast House
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: Private
Photographs: Nick Dearden
Interior & Styling: Anahita Rigby & Sophie Surridge
Low Collection Seat: Benni Allan with Béton Brut
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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01•2023
01•2023
Casa Agulló
Casa Agulló
Casa Agulló is a personal project led by EBBA’s Director, Benni Allan, located in Altea, Spain. EBBA worked carefully to renovate and give the project a new lease of life. The new design maintains heritage features from the original house combined with new interventions and details. The project is defined by the use of materials sourced from within 100km of the house.
The overall concept was to try to retain existing features while celebrate the house’s past. A workshop on the top floor where the previous owner used to make boats is stripped back, with the original concrete floor left bare leaving paint marks that connect with the history of the house as a place for making. The sense of the workshop has also been translated in the design of the kitchen, which acts as a workbench as well as for cooking.
Title: Casa Agulló
Location: Altea, Spain
Year: 2022
Client: Private
Photographs: Salva Lopez
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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05•2022
05•2022
Creative Office
Creative Office
EBBA completed the design of a flexible studio space for MMBP. The project sought to find ways to create joinery and storage solutions through off-the-shelf products. The light touch refurbishment has turned an old storage unit into a warm office space through soft pink and chocolate tones. Maximising the project for flexible working by providing storage solutions that can be easily concealed, while finding ways to add delight in the details and fixtures. Moving down into the office you go through a portal-like entrance concealing a compact kitchen. Enjoyment in this project came through using utilitarian fixtures and soft finishes to achieve a rich result and a calming space to work from. The bookshelf wall was made from parts of a previous table designed for the RA coupled with the stools shown as part of our exhibition design; a nod to EBBA’s consideration of ways to up-cycle projects and products for new uses.
Title: MMBP
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: MMBP
Photographs: Thomas Adank
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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05•2022
05•2022
Island House
Island House
The refurbishment of a maisonette in East London turned what was once a dark interior into a well proportioned living space. The project looked to find ways to reimagine a very compact home, making for flexible living.
Fixed joinery was used to frame the ground level and provide ample storage to retain a clean and open feel. The living room and kitchen was divided by a large central shelving unit that doubles as a place to keep all of the clients items, including the television. All of the workings for the house, including the heating and electrical systems were also concealed within this unit to ensure the rest of the space could be maximised and be as flexible as possible.
A continuous concrete tiled floor runs throughout to make the space feel more expansive. Within the tiled surface is a patchwork of patterns that demarcate the different spaces, imagined as a sort of carpet in laid in the floor. The details in the project look to find ways of making more with less.
The kitchen acts as a workspace with a large central table made from cherry, doubling as an island and also offering a space to dine. The works involved in opening up the ground floor included swapping the location of kitchen and living, in order to maximise light to the heart of the house where the clients work and eat from. New openings were created to make a better flow between the two parts of the ground floor, with the continuous tiles helping to connect them. Upstairs a similar language of joinery lines the landing while the bedrooms are paired back to provide a clean and calm interior. Storage is kept to central section of the house in order to make the rooms larger.
Title: Island House
Location: London
Year: 2021
Client: Private
Photographs: Lorenzo Zandri
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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05•2022
05•2022
Photographer’s Studio
Photographer’s Studio
EBBA have designed a small photographer’s studio, nestled in a wooded garden. The building offers a tall gallery-like space that serves for both studio and domestic activities. The interior is defined by the construction of the building, connected with large openings to the surroundings. It’s main elevation is clad in timber and ceramic tiles that have a rough texture like the bark of the trees on the site.
Title: Photographer’s Studio
Location: London
Year: 2019
Client: Private
Type: Dwelling
Status: Planning granted
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05•2022
05•2022
Jacob Street
Jacob Street
EBBA completed the refurbishment to a warehouse in Bermondsey, turning a commercial unit into a bright and generous apartment. The studio was appointed to reimagine the arrangement of the tall loft space, maximising the use of natural light to make a calm and inviting interior.
The plan is configured to allow for a large open plan kitchen and living area where the clients can also work from, with the new bathrooms and bedrooms being enclosed behind a dark timber clad volume providing more intimate spaces to retire to. A step up and change in level adds to the transition between the two zones of the home. The layout follows the grid of the existing structure making well-proportioned rooms across the apartment.
The rich lining to the timber enclosure emphasises the way the volume is inserted into the space, helping to separate the different functioning zones of the apartment. The outer face of the walnut box facing towards the open side reveals a bold kitchen unit with deep cupboards, acting as a key feature in the living space.
Along one side there is continuous piece of joinery that acts as a library. The bedrooms and bathrooms with the use of cement tiles and a poured floor creates a tactile yet comfortable feel while bringing a sense of tranquillity through materials that complement the darker tones of the walnut elsewhere.
The overall result aims to maintain the character of the building by celebrating the existing steel structure, keeping it exposed and working around the frame to highlight the history of the warehouse. The project tries to make the most of the tall spaces and at the same time offer the opportunity for flexibility required to accommodate the clients’ active lives.
Title: Jacob St
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: Private
Photographs: James Retief
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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05•2022
05•2022
Stanhope
Stanhope
A robust project completed last year to enlarge a family home. Taking inspiration from Florentian palaces with heavy rusticated bases and big timber entrances, the rear facade now gives a certain grandeur to the house and allows the large openings to extend the sense of enclosed space to the paved section of garden. The interior plays between the large sculpted ceiling and the delicate column, providing space for an airy and well proportioned kitchen/dining area. The project was realised on an incredibly tight budget while still managing to deliver a sense of craft through careful detailing and robust materials.
Title: Stanhope
Location: London
Year: 2021
Client: Private
Photographs: James Retief
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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05•2022
05•2022
Gerrards Cross
Gerrards Cross
We are developing proposals for two new homes sharing a likeness in plan yet responding to the needs of each family. Solid walls create the sense of a carved interior with joinery sitting between to line and break up spaces. The buildings reflect a tradition of Georgian architecture while details take inspiration from the local Arts & Crafts houses, an amalgamation of influences that result in a robust contemporary proposition.
Title: Gerrards Cross
Location: London
Year: 2022
Client: Private
Type: Dwelling
Status: in progress
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05•2022
05•2022
Townhouse
Townhouse
EBBA have been working on an ambitious scheme for a prominent corner site to provide three units over a showroom. The building takes on the proportions of the traditional townhouse typology while its form addresses the constraints of the plot. A bay projects out to mimic the buildings next door while strong banding in different brickwork helps to break down the scale.
Title: Townhouse
Location: London
Year: 2021
Client: Private
Type: Dwelling
Status: in progress
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05•2022
05•2022
Bankside Loft
Bankside Loft
EBBA recently completed an apartment refurbishment in Bankside. The open plan arrangement is intended to provide a bright space for flexible living and working. As part of the refurbishment walls were removed helping to open up the apartment, revealing the molded concrete frame of the existing building. Either side of the structure sit two mezzanines that make use of the tall ceilings, offering more private areas for sleeping and study above.
Functional areas such as kitchen and bathroom sit under the mezzanines with in built storage maximizing the use of the space. The plan is designed for cooking and working on one side while living and sleeping on the other, with potential for most areas to be interchanged through loose furniture. The project uses an economical yet high grade pine as the primary material for the construction of the structural elements, stairs, paneling and joinery, finished in a white stain that helps to bring out the grain in the timber.
Panels wrap one side of the living space making a more intimate experience and produce a sense of enclosure. The fabrication methods, from the joints to the interlocking members give the project a clear expression of how the structures are made. An existing timber floor was restored and re-stained giving a natural tone to the apartment while the red ceramic tiles in the kitchen add to the warmth of the neutral space.
Robust light fixtures and discrete cupboards throughout complement the vertical lines and paired back detailing. Overall the result is a compact yet flexible loft apartment that accommodates a modern way of living.
Title: Bankside Loft
Location: London
Year: 2020
Client: Private
Photographs: Lorenzo Zandri and Benni Allan
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
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