ARCHITECTS TO KNOW PAPER HOUSE PROJECT

Set up in 2012 by young architect James Davies, east London-based Paper House Project focuses on creating unique, contemporary living spaces, reworking the industrial warehouse trend with beautiful hard-wearing materials and original, eye-catching architectural features.

Last year, the practice reworked a home and office on east London’s Florida Street, creating a doubleheight internal atrium with an industrial black staircase (right). To get an even better feel for the firm’s style, you need to look at the once-dilapidated warehouse in Hackney (above) that Davies recently transformed into a two-bedroom home for himself. It was given a complete overhaul, with Crittall black powder-coated windows and door frames honouring the building’s industrial past. Meanwhile, the interior was kept minimal – a polished concrete floor was matched with sleek black marble details and dark-stained oak furniture in the kitchen, a brilliant contrast to the spruce panelled staircase at the heart of the home.

The practice is now moving onto even bigger things, with two large London redevelopment projects in the pipeline: ‘Eton Grove’, a derelict Victorian warehouse which will be transformed into apartments, and ‘Bateman Street’, a redesign of a 1960s building in bustling Soho (paperhouseproject.co.uk).