© Michael Franke

迈克尔·弗兰克

架构师提供的文本描述。要理解伦敦的一些房产是如何发展的总是很棘手的。尽管有了令人惊讶的网站www.britis-History y.ac.uk的帮助，该网站详细描述了伦敦几乎每一条街道的发展历史，但你还是不明白为什么有人会把本应是优雅的第一层客厅划分成一个尴尬的厨房，厨房有四米高的天花板，然后是一个又长又窄但又很高的起居室。在公寓后面的两层楼，有一片漆黑的卧室和浴室。这是肯辛顿街的公寓，当时我们被要求重新设计。

Text description provided by the architects. It is always tricky to understand how some properties in London turn out as they do. Even with the help of the amazing site, www.british-history.ac.uk, which details the history of the development of nearly every street in London, you still can’t quite fathom why someone would divide up what should have been a gracious first floor drawing room into an awkward galley kitchen with a more than four metre high ceiling, and then a long and narrow but again very high living room. At the rear of the flat on two floors, were a warren of dark bedrooms and bathrooms. This was the flat in a Kensington street at the time we were asked to redesign it.

 © Michael Franke

迈克尔·弗兰克

这一始于1875年的开发项目似乎花了几年时间才得以启动，因为土地的所有者是智利人，而当时由于缺乏电子邮件，交易速度放慢了。波特兰石材和“最好的白色萨福克砖”(而不是当时更时髦的红砖)不能保证良好的销售(也许是因为后面没有花园？)随着发展的进展，商业上几乎没有成功，一些原本是优雅的六层单层住宅的建筑后来被分割成公寓，街道的一部分变成了豪宅。我们还没有搞清楚我们工作的大楼是什么时候被改造成公寓的(在战后不久的住房危机期间)？但无论何时完成，这都是一项相当糟糕的工作。

It appears that the development, which started back in 1875, took some years to get off the ground because the land freeholders were Chilean and the lack of email in those days slowed down the transactions.   The materials of Portland stone and the “Best White Suffolk Brick” (rather than the then more fashionable red bricks) did not guarantee good sales (maybe it was the lack of gardens at the rear?) and as the development progressed with little commercial success some of the buildings which were intended as elegant six storey single homes, were then split into flats and part of the street was turned into mansion blocks.  We have not been able to work out when the building we worked on was converted into flats (during the housing crisis of the immediate post-war period?) but whenever it was done, it was a pretty poor job.

 © Michael Franke

迈克尔·弗兰克

这套公寓现在属于东南亚几代人的大家庭，他们经常去伦敦工作和娱乐。同时，可以有两个家庭在伦敦度两周假，或者只有两个成年人在伦敦工作几天。因此，对我们来说，最简单的办法是创造一个尽可能灵活的空间，以容纳各种功能，并且设计简单。

The flat belongs now to an extended family of several generations from South East Asia, who regularly visit London for work and pleasure. There could be, at the same time, two families staying for two weeks holiday or just two adults in London for a few days of work. Therefore the brief to us was to create as flexible a space as possible that could accommodate a variety of functions, and be simple in design.

 © Michael Franke

迈克尔·弗兰克

我们的出发点是看看怎样才能把一楼的房间恢复原样，这样前面三扇高高的拱形法国窗户就能恢复原样，再用铁栏杆俯瞰街道的那座可爱的露台重新投入使用。

Our starting point was to see how we could reinstate the first floor room back to something of its originally intended proportions so that the three tall arched french windows at the front could be restored and the lovely terrace overlooking the street with its wrought iron railings be brought back into use.

 © Michael Franke

迈克尔·弗兰克

然后我们想要利用这个空间的高度(4.2米)，所以我们在开放式厨房上增加了一个阁楼卧室/书房，可以用一个半透明的聚碳酸酯折叠屏幕关闭-一个通往主要居住空间的大屏幕，以及一个小得多的屏幕，可以从后面的楼梯上看到。打开时，从前面一直到后面的卧室都可以看到风景。同时，空间可以用一个大地板到天花板的旋转门关闭，这样人们就可以在一定程度上保持隐私。

Then we wanted to make use of the height of the space (4.2 metres) so we included an additional mezzanine bedroom/study over the open plan kitchen, which could be closed off with a translucent polycarbonate folding screen  - a large one opening on to the main living space, and a much smaller screen looking over the staircases at the back.  When open, there are views from the front right through to the back bedrooms. At the same time, the spaces can be closed off with a large floor to ceiling pivoting door so that people can come and go with a level of privacy.

 © Michael Franke

迈克尔·弗兰克

漆面很简单-橡木地板、细木器和白色粉刷墙-这样就能满足所有游客的口味。虽然这套公寓现在的感觉非常现代，但(我们开始工作时，这套公寓里并没有原有的维多利亚风格)优雅的维多利亚式客厅的感觉已经部分恢复了，那就是沿着前面的全部宽度仔细整修窗户和百叶窗。

The finishes are simple – oak floors and joinery, and white painted plaster walls – so that it can suit the tastes of all the visitors.  Although the feel of the flat is now very contemporary, (there were no original Victorian features left in the flat when we started work) the sense of an elegant Victorian drawing room has been partly restored by the careful refurbishment of the windows and shutters along the full width of the front.

 First Floor Plan

一层平面图

Architects VW+BS

Location London, United Kingdom

Category Houses

Architect in Charge Francisco Serradilla, Antonio Rentero

Project Year 2013

Photographs Michael Franke