Coffey Architects’ London Apartment Refurbishment Covered in Thousands of Solid Timber Blocks.

Coffey Architects’ Apartment Block project in central London is a two-storey apartment crafted with impeccable attention to detail. Approached as a solid piece of joinery inserted into an existing 1892 building, the architects went to lengths to preserve the drama and history of the space. Part of the Clerkenwell Conservation Area, the block was originally a school before being converted into a residential and commercial building in 2000.

Coffey Architects began by stripping back all non-original features, including additions from the 2000 conversion. The bones of the interior were left bare, while an existing mezzanine was reconfigured over the double-height living room to maximise openness, light and spatial quality. This main living space celebrates the original Victorian features, including 3m sash windows, glazed green bricks that line the perimeter, and cornicing. An etched image of the original classroom dated 1906 is set into the new structure, providing further historical reference.

Added to the windows are “ornately crafted opening shutters lined with translucent linen to allow light in whilst still maintaining privacy. The shutters filter sun from the south-facing windows and cast an orchestra of shadows on the walls,” explains the design team.

A contemporary kitchen and flexible dining room are tucked below the mezzanine. Sliding pocket doors open into the space, letting light enter and exaggerating the size of the ground floor. The doors and a sliding pocket window panel to the kitchen can be closed off as needed. A staircase leads up to a study area that looks back over the double-height living space, screened off from the master bedroom behind carefully crafted Japanese-inspired sliding screens.

Lending the apartment its name, over 30,000 individually hand-cut and laid cross-section blocks made of European Oak cover most surfaces throughout, including flooring in the living space, kitchen, dining and mezzanine office. The blocks also comprise the ceiling above the kitchen and dining room, an ornate stair and handrail connecting the two floors, and a bespoke desk and dresser. The characteristic wood grain texture of the blocks complements the lightly striped oak timber joinery that lines three sides of the flat for partition walls and hidden storage.

“The concept for the design was to celebrate the history of the building and make a clear definition between what is old and new,” explains project architect Ella Wright. ”It is a contemporary piece of hand-crafted, inhabited joinery inserted into a historic envelope; the two fused together in light and material richness.”

[Images courtesy of Coffey Architects. Photography by Tim Soar.]