This designer’s Shoreditch apartment is ‘part grotto, part cabinet of curiosities’

This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.

In east London, designer Hubert Zandberg’s 45-square-metre apartment is a cabinet of curiosities. This richly-layered space is not the designer’s primary residence and can, as such, be used as a laboratory of sorts: a place for him to test ideas, materials and atmospheres. Even the terrazzo floors and plastered ceilings are prototypes for larger commissions, transforming the apartment into a live archive of Zandberg’s work. ‘This apartment has always been a home away from home – a small East End retreat that I approached almost as a folly,’ he says. ‘The aesthetic is layered, intimate and slightly theatrical.’

The space was originally a ‘painfully bland’ two-bedroom. Zandberg stripped it back entirely, reconfiguring it as a one-bed with an en-suite. The property’s views – historic Huguenot houses on one side and a contemporary office block on the other – also inform the design. ‘This contrast makes it feel like a theatre set, which aligns perfectly with how I work through storytelling and atmosphere.’

At its centre is the reception room, where walls are swathed in burnt-orange velvet, with artworks sitting against the richly coloured textiles – ’a contemporary take on historic picture galleries’, says Zandberg. After dark, the room takes on a different register: ‘The velvet absorbs the light so completely that the artworks almost float in a dark, volcanic void.’ Texture is everywhere, described by Zandberg as ‘membranes’ – taffeta-like cotton, raffia, trompe-l’œil panelling, plaster, and hand-painted canvas.

Colour plays a vital role, emanating from ‘a single anchor point’ in each room – the orange velvet of the reception room, tapestries lining the bedroom, and a grouping of Scandinavian ceramics in the bathroom.

The apartment is populated exclusively with Zandberg’s own collection, which he installed intuitively, without much of a plan. Many of the components are bespoke, including the corner sofa, banquette, dining table, bed and kitchen. Key moments include the experimental plaster ceilings, the tapestry-lined bed tent, and the ceramic-and-tile bathroom wall – though their impact lies less in isolation than in their cumulative effect. ‘I don’t separate art from object,’ says the designer. ‘They operate on the same energetic frequency, and meaning comes from the relationships between them.’

Although the apartment functions more like a laboratory than a lived-in home, practicality underpinned Zandberg’s every decision. A workable kitchen, a generous shower and plenty of seating was prioritised. ‘I wanted to create a richly atmospheric interior that still functioned beautifully and avoided feeling like a cabin on a boat,’ he says.

‘My aim for the space was for it to stir the mind a little, to provoke a quiet sense of curiosity or wonder without being showy,’ the designer reflects. It continues to evolve as new elements are added, yet its essential character endures: a deeply personal interior shaped by instinct, layering and Zandberg’s active creative mind.