Regency, Renaissance and castles coexist in Jonathan Tuckey's latest home interior design
A central London home interior design by Jonathan Tuckey is an architectural landscape mixing Italian Renaissance, John Soane’s Bank of England, Louis Kahn, Regency styles and British castles
![Upper Wimpole Jonathan Tuckey, main living space](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VKqqjgv4d6PPkRxpbwsi43-415-80.jpeg)
A master of interior renovation and transformation, Jonathan Tuckey is an experienced hand at reinventing period spaces – be it domestic or industrial – into richly layered homes that blend contemporary luxury with historical references. His latest home interior design, a house improvement in central London's Wimpole Street, does just that, bringing together the Italian Renaissance, John Soane’s Bank of England, Louis Kahn, Regency styles and British castles.
‘Virginia Woolf described Wimpole street as “…the most august of London streets, the most impersonal. Indeed, when the world seems tumbling to ruin, and civilisation rocks on its foundations, one has only to go to Wimpole Street”, says Tuckey. ‘With this in mind, in the context of 2020, it was quite fitting for the practice to have completed a ground-floor apartment on this particular street in Marylebone.'
Tuckey's concept consisted of a series of refined, craft-rich joinery elements, which would appear in different rooms and unite the interior with a coherent single approach – at the same time differentiating each room through the colour and type of joinery, giving each space its own identity. The design proposal had roots in the owner's brief and functional requirements for storage and the need to subdivide certain spaces.
Simple as this might sound, this was not your usual joinery work. The design team drew on Regency-style carpentry (the period the original house was built), as well as works by Italian Renaissance painter Stefano di Giovanni. The influence of the latter, especially, can be seen in the wooden forms and spatial treatment, which embraces screens and cabinetry as architectural elements, rather than simply ‘decoration' or pastiche.
Meanwhile, ‘the plan for the apartment was developed as a result of studying John Soane’s Bank of England plan and also Louis Kahn’s investigation of British castles', adds Tuckey on the home interior design's internal arrangement. ‘Both of these precedents helped inform the idea of walls as rooms; increasing the thickness of the walls can enable volumes (rooms) to be excavated from them.'
INFORMATION
jonathantuckey.com
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Tour the Natural History Museum’s new gardens, a Jurassic lark in London
The Natural History Museum in London has unveiled two new gardens, with resident dinosaurs, after a transformation led by architects Feilden Fowles
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Drama Republic moves into a colourful, handcrafted workspace in London
For the new creative HQ of production company Drama Republic, Emil Eve Architects remodels a warehouse into office space in London’s Holborn
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Hideaway House in London features timber panelling inspired by the New York hospitality scene
The elegantly refurbished Hideaway House by Studio McW in London features timber panelling inspired by Philip Johnson’s The Four Seasons Restaurant
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
An Uxbridge annexe by Bureau de Change is a design for effortless intergenerational living
Uxbridge Bower, a residential annexe in west London, is a contemporary addition offering both privacy and connection for the needs of a family
By Tianna Williams Published
-
‘Modern Buildings’ tours south-east London through a guide to post-war Blackheath and Greenwich
‘Modern Buildings: Blackheath and Greenwich’ is a detailed survey of a London borough’s rich trove of new modernist architecture
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Triangle House invites you to its inner world of colourful surprises
Triangle House by Artefact is a private home in Epsom, outside London, combining Caribbean style, colour and functionality
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Tour the refreshed Saint Andrew Holborn: an icon reveals its crisp new interior in London
DaeWha Kang reimagines Saint Andrew Holborn church through a sensitive architectural solution that blends tradition and modernity in London
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Suffolk house by Studio Bark pairs a fresh visual language with low-energy design
Suffolk house Water Farm is off-the-grid but defiantly on the map, a bold new object in the landscape with a strong visual impact and minimal carbon footprint
By Jonathan Bell Published