01•2026
01•2026
Living with Timber
Living with Timber
This project is an exploration in the appreciation of living and working with timber. Conceived as both a home for EBBA’s Director, Benni Allan, and a testing ground for design ideas, the apartment renovation became a place to realise concepts that are often compromised during conventional design processes.
Imagined as a live-in showspace, the home is designed to evolve around objects. Collected pieces, works by friends and collaborators, and studio experiments are all displayed in a gallery-like setting. The result is a space that encourages ongoing exploration of how we live with and relate to the things we surround ourselves with.
A defining feature of the project is the extensive use of Douglas fir across walls, floors, and joinery. The installation and finishing of the timber served as a material study, investigating how cost-effective resources can be detailed and treated for longevity. This approach is complemented by reclaimed elements, including salvaged mahogany parquet flooring from a previous EBBA project, reintroduced to extend the material’s life.
The plan is organised around a generous open kitchen and living space. A large built-in furniture element conceals the functional kitchen components, addresses the original building’s sharp angle and provides substantial storage hidden behind. This intervention helps preserve the calmness of raw plaster surfaces and the warmth of timber throughout.
A full-height sliding door connects the main bedroom to the kitchen, allowing borrowed light to filter deep into the plan. A study off the corridor doubles as a workshop space, often populated with found materials that form part of future experiments. Completing the home is a collection of bespoke objects including a stacked coffee table that forms part of an ongoing studio collection, and a custom Douglas fir speaker developed in collaboration with Friendly Pressure and Our Department.
A home designed to evolve and change, and a place for experiments to be explored.
Title: Living with Timber
Location: London
Year: 2025
Client: Private
Photographer: Felix Speller
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
Related Projects
08•2025
08•2025
Basalt House
Basalt House
Basalt House is a thoughtfully conceived renovation and extension of a Victorian terrace in North-West London, designed by EBBA Architects, a London-based studio known for their refined, materially driven architecture. With a strong focus on craft, context, and atmosphere, EBBA’s work often bridges the past and present in subtle, striking ways and Basalt House is a clear expression of that ethos.
The project blends historic character with contemporary interventions, revitalising the home through a bold rear extension in richly textured basalt stone and a loft conversion crowned by an organically shaped skylight. This new architectural language brings natural light deep into the home, with daylight cascading from the loft down through the core of the house, connecting all levels in a gentle, cohesive rhythm.
At the rear, the use of basalt stone adds depth and texture, complemented by an exposed steel lintel that introduces a subtle industrial edge. The juxtaposition of the stone’s soft, earthy tones with the steel’s clean, structural lines creates a calm, grounded atmosphere that feels contemporary yet in harmony with the building’s Victorian origins.
Title: Basalt House
Location: London
Year: 2025
Client: Private
Photographs: Rikard Kahn
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
Related Projects
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
Related Projects
07•2024
07•2024
Steel House
Steel House
Newly completed full restoration in London to a traditional Victorian House. A two-storey full width infill to the rear of the terraced house creates a distinctive new element that rationalises what used to be a adhoc arrangement of previous additions. Reconfiguration of the lower and ground floors help open up and connect to main living spaces, while the upper floors have been updated with new interventions throughout. A steel structural facade gives new views out to the garden and at the same time transforms the rear of the house to give it a porous quality.
The double height insertion will help to establish a new relationship between the lower ground and upper floors to make a more connected home. The delicate infill helps to give the impression of a tall conservatory, drawing light deep into the plan as well as framing views of the garden from different parts of the interior.
We worked carefully with the original building to reimagine the layout and provide a new family home that caters to modern ways of living. The connection between the different floors and the generous opening up of the spaces generates an entirely new experience in the home, one that promotes better use of the house and helps to improve the quality and access to light.
Title: Steel House
Location: London
Year: 2024
Client: Private
Photographer: Ståle Eriksen (interior) & Rikard Khan (exterior)
Type: Dwelling
Status: Completed
Related Projects
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
Related Projects
01•2026
01•2026
GW Door Handle
GW Door Handle
EBBA has designed a bespoke ironmongery series informed by the modernist home of Georgie Wolton, drawing from the quiet precision and clarity of the original levers at Belsize Lane. The project began as a close reading rather than a direct reproduction and an attempt to understand how proportion, weight, and surface combine to produce something both functional and atmospheric.
Developed in close collaboration with Ize, the new series reimagines the original handles while retaining their essential character and refining their geometry and construction. Key qualities of the historic levers are carried forward and recalibrated for modern-day use.
The form of the handle is conceived as a continuous gesture, connecting seamlessly to the door through a subtle fluting that dissolves the distinction between lever and rosette. Rather than treating the backplate as a separate element, the design integrates it as part of a single, coherent assembly. This allows the handle to sit quietly within a range of architectural contexts, reading as both precise and familiar.
The result is a timeless piece of ironmongery suited to old and new settings alike. The handle is defined less by stylistic reference than by proportion, material presence, and the experience of use. As with all of EBBA’s work, the handle is shaped by an economy of means, where reduction serves clarity and every decision is made to support the whole.
Title: Georgie Wolton Handle
Location: Global
Year: 2025
Client: Ize
Photographer: Rikard Kahn
Type: Objects
Status: Completed
Related Projects
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
Related Projects
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
Related Projects
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
Related Projects
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
Related Projects