NAN Residence is minimal house located in London, United Kingdom, designed by FOF studio. This is an interior refurbishment of a ground floor flat in Bermondsey, London— a grade II-listed, former paper mill, and tannery. The warehouse consists of several original features such as timber beams, brick walls, cast-iron columns, and cast-iron pivoting windows. A young couple had lived in the flat for a year and decided it was time to renovate their home. Their main criteria were simple— to make their home a brighter space, and to have a larger kitchen with a central island.

To address the issue of light, the designers decided to remove one of the partitions that formerly divided the living room and bedroom. By opening up the rooms, daylight from the south-facing windows could penetrate into the living and dining space, creating a much brighter area. In lieu of the wall, they introduced a set of full height timber-glazed screens to allow flexibility of the space, and add visual interest, with the filtering of light through a mix of clear and vintage-pressed glass. The bi-fold screen serves a two-fold purpose— either to completely open up the living room or to be closed up into a bedroom. A curtain is added directly behind the screen for added privacy in the evening.

Aside from resolving the spatial configurations, the choice of the material palette also played a key role in achieving a brighter space. There were many listed elements the studio had to work with, of which the brick wall was a dominant one. The colors of the brick were used as a starting point for the material palette. Picking up on the brown and yellow hues of the brick, and to add warmth to the palette, they introduced oak-frame secondary glazing to all windows. Pragmatically, this also served to insulate the space thermally and acoustically. The remaining palette was deliberately kept calm— with warm-white painted walls, matching joinery, white-washed oak timber floor, and neutral color cast concrete in the kitchen.

Photography by Biel Moreno