High Street House is a project in west London designed by Teatum + Teatum and developed by Noiascape, which proposes a new approach to urban life. Fahad Malik, an architect who contributed to the project, now lives and works in the mixed-use building, running his practice, Wadhal, from the space. For the autumn/winter edition of The Modern House Magazine – which you can buy here – we met Fahad to discover the building’s progressive ideas about contemporary urban life. To celebrate its launch, we’re excited to share the coinciding film we made upon our visit, in which we asked the young architect to share his Seven Wonders.

The compact studio flat that Fahad and his partner call home is one of eight within a block in Shepherd’s Bush. Each apartment has a smaller footprint in comparison to conventional London housing – but this was entirely intentional. Fahad has used the extra space to create communal areas – identified by their vivid-red pigmented concrete floors – for inhabitants to congregate, such as the co-working lounge. “But sometimes it becomes temporarily public, as it’s also used for pop-up shops and exhibitions,” he explains. “Even though it’s small, there are big ideas here about changing lifestyles.”

His studio flat is also, as Fahad describes, “a bit of an experiment”. As in the other seven dwellings here, the concrete floor has been cast in a cooling green to create a striking shift in mood from the shared spaces. But perhaps some of his brightest ideas include a “building within a building” and a “room within a room”: sculptural nooks and crannies that act as separate zones within each open-plan apartment. “The idea of cellular spaces coming off a corridor has remained largely unquestioned and I do think it’s the role of young architects to challenge that and come up with new models for living,” he says.

Watch our film now to hear Fahad discuss his intriguing ideas about home as he shares his seven favourite things about his own. And while you’re here, pick up a copy of our new magazine by clicking the link below. Inside, you’ll find our full profile on the architect, in which we delve into his upbringing in Islamabad and find out why, when it comes to colour, it’s worth being rebellious.