Repurposed Firehouse

A 19th-century firehouse converted to a live-work residence, with painting and sculpture studios on the ground floor and a private studio above. The brief was for an artist’s house that holds two programmes in one envelope.

The 26-foot apparatus bay was kept as the volume of the living room — a double-height space crossed by exposed beams, with bamboo planted along the wall. Painting and sculpture studios share the ground floor with the kitchen and a coffee-and-tea bar; the master suite, a private studio, and two guest rooms sit upstairs, with a glass-floored terrace at the rear.

The interior language is Japanese-restrained. Shoji-screen sliding walls, low platforms, washi panels, deep eaves on the terrace. Reclaimed oak floors throughout. Natural clay plaster on the walls — warmer at the public floor, cooler at the bedrooms above.