The former saddlery constitutes the new main entrance. And, as we see it today, the house has been rationalized in its levels, restoring a rear elevation useful to give meaning to the access doors to the garden. We are at Londoninside The Saddleryrenovated by Studio Octopi. Its new extension covers the entire width of the rear, remaining in line with cultural heritage restrictions that imposed the necessary distances from the house next door. According to what the designers said, the study on geometry was fundamental in creating a large area, in which the dining table is the great protagonist.
The house which today, once the works are finished, blends perfectly with contemporary taste, materializing in an address of mixes between past and present, (also) houses a glass staircase that connects the latest extension to the raised ground floor. A connecting element, the ramp focuses entirely on its see-through aspect which softens its geometric appearance. In the basement, the French windows in the living room – a legacy of the post-war project – were removed and replaced with a sash window. This entire space dotted with skylights, positioned between the table and the glass staircase, lights up with the light entering from the garden. “The skylights create a moment of playfulness in the setting of an otherwise formal response to the life of the house yesterday and today,” said the designers.
From the outside, the facade looks like a puzzle that links the project of the past to the contemporary one. Here, a green steel cladding was chosen as a counterpoint to the Red brick of a time. According to research on the traces of the original house, the vertical joints of this intervention follow the rhythm of the pre-war greenhouse, which once covered the back of the house. In this cut-and-sew of styles and eras, the house reopens its doors to make room for life: the heart of living.
Alessia Musillo is editor of Elledecor.it. Graduated from the State University of Milan with a thesis held at the Treccani Foundation in Milan, she also studied Modern Languages at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (UK) and Semiotics at the University of Tartu (Estonia). After having collaborated with various newspapers, today she transforms current events into stories by writing about cities, design and pop culture for the Elle Decor Italia website. You can follow her on Instagram (@alessia__musillo) or by reading Elledecor.it. Her articles are journeys on the trail of contemporary living. The middle of her? The word.
