Words Billie Brand
Photography Elliot Sheppard

When photographer Jackie Dewe Mathews and her partner, Alex Wills, spent some time in South America, they fell in love with its architecture: the modernist shapes, dramatic use of concrete, how the buildings have a beautiful relationship with nature. So, when they came to renovate their traditional Victorian terraced house in Peckham, south-east London, they knew exactly where to look for inspiration. Incidentally, their architect, Hugh Strange, has an affinity for Brazilian architecture – and he instantly liked the brief, bringing to the table references of Lina Bo Bardi and Luis Barragán.

The two-year project involved completely removing a room on the ground floor, creating a courtyard adjacent to the new living space and introducing a double-height ceiling. Industrial materials, such as steel beams and concrete floors, sit among softer elements like wood and exquisitely plastered walls, which, up close, appear like a JMW Turner painting of clouds. But most delightfully of all, the interior is worlds apart from that of a conventional period house – and Jackie couldn’t be more pleased. As she shows us around the extraordinary family home she shares with Alex and their two sons, she tells us about her inspiring trip to São Paulo, collaborating with Hugh and why the space makes a wonderful photographer’s studio.

Jackie: “My husband, Alex, and I wanted to live in something dramatic. We spent a few months in São Paulo in Brazil where modern architecture is the norm – you don’t have the ornate Victorian aesthetic. So many of the houses we visited were in a brutalist style. It was the first time I had seen concrete used for a domestic setting and it really worked. And we spent a lot of time looking at the work of Oscar Niemeyer. We loved it there.

“I grew up in a Victorian house and can appreciate their beauty and grand proportions. When we bought this place, the bones were there, but the interior was very dark, hard and shiny. There were black lacquered units, UV strip lighting over the floor and the rooms were small and the windows tiny. It felt like a nightclub!

“My sister, Laura, is an architect, and she recommended Hugh for our home renovation. We saw his house and we really adored it. It wasn’t like anything we’d seen in London before. It’s built mainly from wood, which we loved, so we committed to that material for our house. Brutalism, of which there’s a lot in South America, inspired our use of concrete, while Alex was really into the idea of industrial steels. Although I was unsure of them initially, I now love the strong lines they make. Hugh’s great at keeping the palette down to three or four materials and creating a strong ​rhythm and logic to all elements of the design – and that’s why it’s such an easy space to be in.

“What was brilliant about Hugh, is that when we said, ‘We want this South American, otherworldly aesthetic,’ it wasn’t a problem. It’s nice not to be told ‘No’.

“There was a very funny moment in the early stages of design when we went to visit Hugh at his studio. We were really excited about the meeting and then he showed us references of breeze blocks, untreated steel in maroon fire-retardant paint. We left that meeting completely terrified – we didn’t want to live in a car park! But we worked on a good compromise that meant Hugh could maintain his design principles and we could have something that we found beautiful.

“There were a couple of other points that Hugh and I had to negotiate. I have this beautiful glass cabinet from a flea market in Paris. I was really keen to have it on show downstairs and Hugh was absolutely adamant that it wouldn’t work. In the end, we have another wooden piece by Simon Jones, who did all the joinery for the project, where it would’ve sat. Of course, it was the right decision. Sometimes there are things that have sentimental value but aren’t going to work with a certain design.

“Something that does work in the space, though, which we had before we lived here, is the photograph above the dining table. It’s by Jo Metson Scott. We bought it just before our oldest son was born, as we knew we wouldn’t have any spare cash to buy art after. It works so well in this house against the wood that it’s hard to believe we didn’t get it specifically for the space.

“I love the grandeur of the ceiling height but the steels create a frame that’s a lot lower, so you have a sense of a smaller, more intimate space too. The design is so clever.

“The curtains were a late addition, but they make it feel very much like a modernist house. Lina Bo Bardi’s house in São Paulo, Brazil, was a big reference. It has that lush, luxurious feel of the architecture of that era.

“What was interesting about the process is that you choose the materials having no idea about how they are going to make the space feel – you just don’t know what it’s going to be like to be surrounded by your chosen palette. I was terrified that it would feel too polished, too modern, too much like an austere gallery. When everything was finally assembled, the space felt so warm, spacious and even cosy. I was delighted.

“Everything happens on the one floor, from kids eating to adults socialising. The children love it. They slide along the concrete and play elaborate games in which you can’t touch the floor.

“The garden has been amazing too, even though we were quite adamant that we were going to design it around what we wanted, selfishly, rather than the children – we didn’t want a lawn or football goal. I think kids are so adaptable and they’ve been really interested in all the plants and the flowers that come up at different times of the year. And they do have a trampoline at the end, so they haven’t been completely forgotten about!

“Artists’ studios with high ceilings and big windows were a reference for the house. Recently I’ve started using the space as a photography studio, which I never anticipated. It’s been a brilliant discovery. I hang big black sheets of material off the steels using magnets, shutting the light from coming in on one side, so I get this lovely, reflected Rembrandt-type glow.

“The project took two years from start to finish. It was a fascinating experience. I’ve got so much respect for builders now. They’re such incredible problem solvers. And it was such a ​privilege to get an insight into the architectural process. I feel so lucky to have been able to work with Hugh. It’s been three years since we finished the house and we still love it every single day. It’s as exciting and different as we wanted it to be.”