Surface Design Awards – Complete

• INTERIOR SURFACE OF THE YEAR - NEW
  This is a new category that recognises wall, floor, ceiling and surface design products, including decorative, creative and inventive surfaces for the interior of buildings including both commercial and residential properties.
• HOUSING - INTERIOR 
  Buildings such as houses, flats and apartments that are used for sheltering people. These could be either part of the private or public sector and could be individual dwellings or multi-dwelling developments. Social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing, provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market are included.

Graphic House is an Edwardian home in Hackney that has been transformed by Office S&M to reflect the tastes of its graphic designer owners. The new design draws upon the client’s belief in the power of graphics and love of Art Deco forms, with distinct shapes used to connect spaces and bright colours to enhance every room.

A variety of colours have been used to help define key moments throughout the house and tell a story about the building’s purpose and history. For instance, a minty green tone is used as a graphic tool to highlight all the new-built elements on the ground floor, wrapping around the curved walls of the toilet, through the kitchen, and on to the rear garden wall. Similarly, yellow is used for the window and door frames to highlight the new openings. Where existing walls have been restored, the pink plaster has been left bare, indicating the house’s past and revealing the maker’s hand, as well as bringing warmth and softness to the space.

As lovers of the outdoors, the family wanted this love of adventure to be captured in their home. The architects took these ideas and reconfigured the interiors to bring in more light and create a sense of playfulness. A collection of graphic shapes overlap between the different levels of the house, following the stairwell. This includes an over-scaled stair painted on the wall that draws you up, while reflective circular shapes help to connect the different levels while also capturing sunlight entering through a rooflight above and bringing it downstairs.

Pops of bright colours highlight objects and elements in the space, such as a red curved extractor hood that projects like a nose from the wall in the kitchen, marking the cooking space. The interiors of the toilet and coat cupboards are painted in a bright Dulux Bongo Jazz, a vivid peach, creating an immersive colour experience that contrasts with the minty green. When the doors are ajar, the colour spills out into the hallway, creating intrigue and surprise.

The clients loved the curved edges in the brick walls and the later addition of the Art Deco fireplace in the original house, and wanted to see these reflected in the designs. These features are echoed in the round windows and mirrors, the rounded worktops and curved walls. The graphics serve a practical purpose as well as an aesthetic one, the curved walls of the WC lead you through the hall, kitchen and dining space.

Throughout the house, circular shapes have been used to puncture walls. Some are transparent, allowing light through, as with the large window in the kitchen, while others mirror and reflect light. In the stairwell, the circular mirrors and glossy paint reflect light and create new views and graphic compositions which play out as one moves through the space. The kitchen window also acts as a time marker, like the oculus in the dome of the Pantheon in Rome. The circle of sunlight will track across the space, recording the passing of time and the seasons. When the circle first appears, it announces the beginning of spring, and its disappearance marks the start of winter.

Catrina Stewart, Partner, Office S&M, and project architect, said: “This house had to fulfil a series of practical functions to improve the lives of the family that occupy it but that doesn’t mean we can’t also merge these with bold aesthetic choices too. Graphic House demonstrates that materials, colour, light and space can transform how we live in an entirely positive way. We’re so pleased to see the clients enjoying their new spaces now and into the future.”

Bronwen Westrip "We commissioned Catrina and her team to renovate our Edwardian home, no exterior work just interior shuffling and revisioning. We have two small kids so the brief was to be fun and bring light into our very dark house - and WOW did she deliver. We are delighted with the result, which has transformed our space into a happy, usable, fun place to live. We opted for office S&M to oversee the build, which Catrina did with careful diligence and support throughout. She kept us informed when things had to change, helped us make the difficult decisions and we feel she maintained a standard of quality we would not have achieved alone. They kept good relations with all involved despite serious delays and unforseen complications. We are so happy we found them, that they chose to work for us, and that we get to live in the result for years to come. :)"

Cost £200,00
Completed 2022

Recycled materials are sustainable and have a story to tell, so for the countertop we worked with The Good Plastic Company, which creates surfaces from used plastics. It's a remarkable process; they send photos of rubbish and you pick what you want to use. We chose a mix of recycled cutlery as we liked the idea that trash from a feast could be reused for a kitchen table.

The Good Plastic Company (goodplasticcompany.com)

Creating a long-term home which is better insulated, well ventilated and more sustainable, was a really important part of the project. Insulation has been added, and wherever possible the house has been repaired and restored, rather than building new. The kitchen worktops for example, were made from recycled plastic cutlery melted down to create hardwearing kitchen surfaces, meanwhile existing openings were fitted with new energy efficient windows, and existing walls were reinsulated and plastered for airtightness before being left bare to tell the story of the existing house. Insulation has been added to the floors, ceilings, roof, and walls. Underfloor heating and a new boiler have been installed and the radiators have been updated throughout. We used a mineral wool insulation from Rockwool, since it’s non combustible, resistant to water and made from rock, which has been spun into a fibrous material, like candyfloss.