42 FRANCIS UPRITCHARD AND MARTINO GAMPER CREATIVITY SQUARED

My dear friends Francis Upritchard and Martino Gamper have a new home. It is a beautiful light filled apartment that is essentially a prototype of their combined creativity as there is hardly a surface that the couple haven’t interpreted in their own way. Everyday materials have been applied in innovative ways, distinctive colour combinations created, glass lamp shades blown by Francis, even the pottery hooks on the back of the bathroom doors were made by Martino on a recent trip to New Zealand. Every detail has been considered, every item crafted. Both Francis and Martino exhibit regularly in their respective fields (Francis as an artist and Martino as a designer), often collaborating with each other and other industry leaders. Francis recently created a capsule collection with British label Peter Pilotto in collaboration with the London boutique Matches. Their busy lives in a busy city led the couple to tailor their work/life balance to suit their specific needs, which effectively meant less distance between the two. They had been living in Francis’ house in Hackney for many years when a plan was hatched to buy a former printing factory with three other couples, the existing building would become Francis and Martino’s creative studios and then together they would build three levels of apartments above this. Jason Whiteley of architectural firm Matheson Whiteley was engaged to develop the spaces and to create a base plan for each owner, which could then be customised to suit their own needs. I haven’t seen inside the other apartments but I feel confident that none of the others would be anything like Francis and Martino’s. With a reclaimed hardwood parquet floor, a sublimely unusual palette of marbled marmouleum panels inset into the doors and to create the floor to ceiling kitchen cabinetry, all designed by Martino. Wardrobes doors are beautifully upholstered in candy coloured kvadrat fabrics with a separate colour for the inside as to the outside. The bathroom is tiled in brown Welsh Quarry tiles from the 70s with grey coloured grout delineating them. The walls are white washed pine with the skirting of lacquered soft green punctuating the separation between the white walls and the richness of the parquet floors. Furnished with an amalgamation of their own work and that of their friends; a chair and a daybed by Max Lamb, pastel coloured wall mounted glass lamps by Bethan Wood sit amongst large scale artworks by Peter McDonald, Caragh Thuring and Luke Gottelier all bringing energy to the home. The dining table, bed and drawers in the master bedroom are works by Martino’s from a project

She’s an artist; he’s a designer. And their talent is multiplied in the former sawmill in London where they live with other artists. A customized home with recycled parquet, faux-marble linoleum and a wardrobe dressed in a fabric rainbow

Mr and Mrs Gamper on the rooftop of their new house in London: a former sawmill now converted into a condo