61AMR is a minimal home located in London, United Kingdom, designed by WIDGER Architecture. Situated on a residential street in Walthamstow, the property previously was difficult to inhabit and utilize due to awkward wall and ceiling plains. These spaces have undergone a transformation into bedroom and studios that creates calm and serene interiors. The design approach took the existing forms, folds and edges and not only improved but also embraced them, attaching new complementary angular forms alongside. Both explicitly such as the window seat concealing storage, through to the subtlety of the plywood joint lines.
The project successfully unites two contrasting timber types, burnt larch, and plywood. Celebrating these materials both individually and in their combined fusion. The plywood surfaces throughout the interior have the sense of weightlessness floating above the floor, and plywood is not only is limited to finishes. The end-grains are exposed on the staircase banister, architraves, door, and window frames.
The external timber cladding wraps internally framing the windows allowing the burnt larch to be acknowledged within the rooms and not just from afar on the external elevation. Additionally all fittings and fixtures have been selected to compliment the dark external cladding whilst contrasting against the plywood. The larch used for the external facade finish was burnt by the owner of the property allowing complete control over the texture and color whilst under the flame. The process of burning not only protects the timber cladding but also gives a refinement to the exterior that stands in contrast to the residential terrace surrounding.
Photography by Ståle Eriksen