Designed by architect Claudio Silvestrin for forward-thinking developer Gary Giessing, our location house for our September 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*222) was built on a constrained site and faced some important planning stipulations, but it certainly isn’t lacking in amenities.
From the basement pool and spa, past a multi-level garden by Chelsea gold medallist Chris Beardshaw, all the way up to the rooftop bedroom with City skyline views, it’s the epitome of high-end contemporary residential design.
The local council’s demand for a brick façade and continuity have resulted in a very stealthy dwelling at street level. Three materials – stone, oak and bronze – form the core of the house with the Bolzano-sourced stone giving the interiors a carved, cave-like quality (albeit one with meticulously precise geometry).
A spread from the ‘Trench Fever’ leather coat shoot in our September 2017 issue (W*222). Photography: Máté Moro. Fashion: Lune Kuipers
Inspired by the soft structuring of the interior materials selected by Silvestrin, the W* fashion team laid out a luxe spread of leather trench coats, while the interiors team delivered light and conceptual glass tables from Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka and smooth ceramics from a collaboration between 1882 Ltd and Russell Pinch to the classic yet contemporary mix.
Biscuit-coloured stone surfaces feature in each room – lining corridors, curving around the stairwell and tinting the turquoise water within the basement pool – bringing a powerful and continuous calming aesthetic to the whole of the house. The stone, laid by Italian artisans without using grout, has a pleasing visual echo of the tower of Christ Church Hampstead, which is visible from the upper terraces.
‘We always go over and above on specification,’ says Giessing, ‘but with Claudio, we’ve created a work of art as well.’
A version of this article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*222)
