Track Record/Kensington & Chelsea

HEAT were appointed to take part in a developer competition to redesign Chelsea Fire Station in the Kings Road.

The design incorporated a new rebuilt fire station clad in red glass with 31 apartments and three A1 Units based around a landscaped atrium with glass elevators. With a confined urban site you have to be inventive and make spaces work hard, so each apartment is provided with a “winter garden”; glazed balconies which can be closed in winter and fully opened to become open terraces in summer.

The site is on a corner overlooking an open space, so the design has two primary façades.

Project 084

Our brief for this project in Holland Park included the requirement to store an impressive wine collection. In the interests of research we embarked on a tour of the secretive world of London’s private wine cellars. Our solution was to create a dining room lined with glass-fronted walk-in cellars, dimly lit with Italian marmorino walls, a basalt floor running through and woven stainless steel screen to protect the wine from direct light. Concealed lighting and a glass link to the floor above complete the drama and sense of ritual.

The same stone floor and detailing was carried through to the Boffi kitchen; the basalt and wine-red glass splashback forming a theme for the bathrooms and walk-in wet rooms.

Planning Consent was gained from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for a conservatory extension at the rear and changes to the windows on the rear elevation

Published: RIBA Journal

Project 068

A trip to Venice was the inspiration for the layout of this stucco fronted house in Notting Hill. It is possible to circulate around the “Piano Nobile” of a Venetian House without entering the principal salon. In this case we  connected one room to another to create a horseshoe shaped series of rooms leading from the family room to the kitchen to the dining room to the sitting room and finally to the study; all accessible from a hallway containing the entrance, staircase and loo.

A planning consent from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for an annexe at the rear allows the re-planning of the basement.

Published: Sunday Telegraph, April 18 2004

Project 051

A privately owned tower block in Notting Hill Gate required extensive upgrading and refurbishment and we were brought on board by the management committee to draw up feasibility plans for the refurbishment of the block. To defray the cost of the improvements we came up with proposals to create four additional penthouse flats at roof level and we proposed a partnership with a development company. The image above shows the exploded axonometric model that we used to help plan the duplex apartments.

Project 040

Set back from the road in Kensington, this rather grand house had lost a lot of its “kerb appeal” over the years with inappropriate uPVC windows and brick boundary walls at the front. During the war all the original railings were ripped away from London’s houses (except where there was a light well or danger of a fall) to be used for aircraft and armaments. In the event the cast iron was found to be unsuitable and piles of rusting railings were found unused in scrap heaps after the end of the war.

HEAT restored the original railing pattern, including a novel sliding section for vehicle access. We made some subtle changes – removing tanks from the roof, replacing windows and cleaning and re-pointing brickwork carefully to match the original appearance. At the rear planning permission was obtained for a contemporary lightweight glazed extension and changes to the roofline. The house was completely refurbished as part of the works.

Project 035

HEAT have gained planning consent from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for the refurbishment and extension of a small house in a gated mews in Chelsea. Dense urban sites are always challenging and to obtain permission for a roof extension and rear extension were important achievements that, although relatively small, made a significant improvement to the floor area and the usability of the space.

Project 026