As their ground-floor Victorian flat comes to the market, Robbie de Santos and Pete Biggs reflect on transforming their home into a series of considered, material-driven spaces that allow them to engage in life’s simple pleasures (and which picked them up the overall winner award of New London Architecture’s ‘Don’t Move Improve’ competition in 2017). Read on to hear how they made space for a sunken Japanese bath and a larger kitchen-diner, and what impact adding wildflowers and a vegetable patch have had on their enjoyment of the south-facing garden. Check out the sales listing here.

Robbie: “For us, modern living is about enjoying the every day and taking joy from being at home, whether that’s while cooking, cleaning, resting or bathing. We live in a stressful and uncertain time, so embracing and enjoying the simple things is all the more important.”

Pete: “When we first saw this place, we thought, ‘It’s perfect’. It was a large one bedroom flat with a south-facing garden, which was exactly what we were after. It was structurally sound but in need of some love, so it gave us the blank canvas we wanted to make some quick improvements before planning something more transformative.

“We worked with Gary at Studio 304 to completely reorientate the rear of the house, turning a dark warren of cupboards and tiny hallways into an open, flowing space filled with light. The bathroom blocked all of the light from the sunny southern end of the house, and the kitchen faced into the shady side return. Swapping the two was crucial so that the spaces we used the most had the most light.

“We also removed a wall in the living room to improve the connection between the two main living spaces, and renovated the cellar, which accommodates a large hot water tank for the bath and the washing machine as well as storage, a workshop and other utilitarian functions, keeping the main part of the house on the ground floor free of clutter. We also moved the boiler into a dedicated outside cupboard to the rear of the kitchen, freeing up cupboard space and keeping the kitchen as a dedicated space for cooking and entertaining.”

Robbie: “Now, the flat is characterised by efficient, thoughtful use of space, but the really unique feature is that it has a sunken Japanese bath, or furo, housed in a glass box which protrudes into the side return. It faces on to mature bamboo and is surrounded by Japanese gravel, with a slatted larch screen over the glass box to maintain privacy when bathing.”

Pete: “Our approach to materials was inspired by the Schindler House in Los Angeles, which we visited in 2013. It has a really simple palette of innovative materials, with a raw concrete cast bath and sink in the bathroom and slit windows which let light into the space without it feeling harsh.

“So, in the bathrooms we have a grey microcement on the walls and in the bath and the walk-in shower. It allowed us to achieve a similar aesthetic to the Schindler House, but with a more practical, modern and waterproof material. We used unlacquered brass taps and fittings in both bathrooms, which have also weathered beautifully.”

Robbie: “An architect friend of a friend then recommended that we read In Praise of Shadows, an essay on Japanese aesthetics by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. This really got us thinking differently about materials and about embracing signs of ageing and weathering as a testimony to the life lived in a space.

“In the kitchen we have a dramatic copper worktop and splashback, which develops a richer patina with every use and is incredibly practical, being impervious to stains and naturally antimicrobial. It is complemented by more larch slats which have been preserved using the ancient Japanese shou sugi ban technique of burning and oiling wood. The polished concrete floor is a light colour and we embrace the cracks, scrapes and swirls in the concrete mix.”

Pete: “The work completely changed our lives in this space. It’s made every part of the flat a joy to be in. We only added a few square feet with the work, but the project made every inch of space work for the way we live today – there is not a single spot of dead space. It means we have a range of high-quality separate living spaces, inside and outside, which is not something you can usually say for a Victorian conversion.”

Robbie: “Our interior taste is simple, modern and restrained. We started off with a single piece of mid-century modern furniture that we found on eBay when we first moved in together, and we’ve built our style out from there. We’ve become a little more ‘modern’ over the years but we still love original 1970s interiors!

“The living room furniture has been with us for many years, but we commissioned a number of pieces specifically to optimise the space and the way we wanted to live in it. Our first commission was the built-in wardrobes in the bedroom. They were designed and built by an East London furniture maker called Ola Leander.

“The walnut table, chairs and bench in the kitchen were made by our friend David Ross who designs furniture, lighting and interiors, producing the pieces in his Hackney Road workshop. He leaned into the contemporary aesthetic of the room with some striking angles on the pieces. David also designed and made our garden furniture: a built-in bench and matching freestanding table in larch.

“We also commissioned Violaine Verry of VV Ceramics to make some more rustic pieces for the table to contrast with some of the stark lines in the kitchen.

Pete: “We’re so lucky to know some really talented artists. We really love the painting by our friend Dan Whiteson which hangs above the mantelpiece in the living room. Dan runs very popular life drawing classes across London (and online) and captures the human form beautifully.

“We also commissioned some original art from Kate Jackson, who specialises in abstract brutalist architecture paintings (indie music fans may know her better as the singer from The Long Blondes). She painted a series of scenes from the North Circular Road, which we always cross on our cycles out into the Essex countryside, so we commissioned one that would work in the kitchen.”

Robbie: “We have two outside spaces. One is a shady bamboo garden in the side return, with raked Japanese gravel and views of the glass box, which is surrounded by the larch slats that clad the side of the building. It’s a great space for contemplation as it’s so simple and the sound of the wind in the bamboo is quite magical.

“We also have the larger sunny south-facing garden. The patio is polished concrete, and a continuation of the polished concrete on the kitchen floor. We laid wildflower turf four years ago and now it’s a mature and rich habitat for wildlife. We love to see the different wildflowers spring up over the years, and see the bees feeding on them, and the birds feeding on other wildlife. It’s nice to have a patch of wild in the city, and it’s a nice contrast against the sleek, sharper style of the kitchen.

“We have an established herb garden on top of our larch-clad garden cupboard. There’s a vegetable patch to the rear and we’ve had great success with growing tomatoes there over the last few summers.”

Pete: “We’ve lived together very happily in one-bed flats for the last 12 years and we’re now in a position where we can buy a bigger home nearby, so we’re excited to start a new project to make another beautiful home for the next stage of our lives. We learned so much in the process of making this home, and there’s more that we’d like to do with a bigger canvas.

“We don’t want to move far, this part of London really is our home and we’ve built such strong networks from the community around us. We’re looking to move to a Victorian house on the other side of Walthamstow Marshes so that we can still be near the wild open space we love and a short cycle or walk from our friends here in Clapton.”

Robbie: “We’ll miss the neighbours and the community most. We are surrounded by kind and lovely people, some who have lived on the street for decades, others for a few years.

“We’ll also be sad to leave the bath behind, but a sunken bath in a glass box isn’t the easiest thing to move. This really is unique and it’s unlikely we’ll be able to create something as special as this again (but a sauna is on our mind for the next project!).”