A new vaulted hall runs the length of this listed central London apartment for Japanese clients. A sliding panel slides across to form an ante room to the bedroom beyond.

Floors are in untreated English oak boards. The hall, bathrooms and all doors are finished in polished plaster, and the living room fire in English Purbeck marble, polished to the surround and flamed to the extended hearth.

Bespoke doorhandles, inspired by the Katsura Imperial Villa outside Kyoto, and wall lights in brass were designed for the project, made by the fifth-generation Carl Auböck workshop in Vienna.

On the first day of works the contents of the old apartment were cleared, and the project included selection and design of all furniture, down to cutlery and bedlinen, and artworks. ‘The Waves’, a weaving by artist Amy Revier, was commissioned for the space, inspired by Virginia Woolf writing in the nearby London Library.

Featured in design anthology uk April 2020

Photographed on film by Alexander James