Project Private House, York
Our brief was to unpick an earlier poor conversion of this former public building. The client wished to restore the prominence of the period detailing and juxtapose this with a minimalist design of new fitted storage for hiding the trappings of modern life with some key alterations to the historic plan form.
The kitchen in particular was re-designed and now links through to the living room, which allows natural light to filter through between the rooms. A new mezzanine above the staircase with a contemporary glass staircase provides an office space with a wonderful view of York Minster.
Native upgraded the efficiency of the building by insulating all of the ground floor except for the hallway and draught-stripping all of the windows and doors so whilst they remain original they are more efficient.
This project won the John Shannon Conservation Award from the York Design Awards 2015, with the judges describing it as “a co-ordinated sequence of rooms that is, at the same time, homely, practical, gracious, well-ordered, – and quite simply beautiful.”