Words Kate Jacobs
Photography Rachel Ferriman

From the outside, this house remains true to the spirit of London, referencing the city’s rich layers of history while driving design boldly forward. But step inside and the space is unexpectedly transportive and light-filled. Here, the soft twitter of birds echoes from the courtyard, where sunlight is filtered by the fronds of stately fern trees. Sitting down to absorb the experience from the comfort of the sunken conversation pit, it’s all too easy to lose your sense of time and place. “I wanted to be able to close the gate and feel that you could be anywhere,” owner Zoe Papadopoulou explains.

Zoe, an artist, lives here with her West Highland White terrier, Nico, named after the enigmatic chanteuse. The household is a social one, with the guest bedroom in regular use. A friend from Zoe’s native Cyprus has flown in just this morning, bringing a carefully-packed consignment of Cypriot pastries – tiropitta and eliopitta – from Zoe’s mother in Nicosia, which we feast on as we chat. As the house comes to market, Zoe describes her decision to live here, and the light-washed oasis she is leaving behind.

Zoe Papadopoulou: “Aperture House is built on a plot that was once an abandoned garage. By the time it went to auction, the garage had already been demolished, so it was just rubble overgrown with weeds. I saw it advertised for sale and when I decided to check what price it had gone for, I found out it hadn’t sold. I came and walked around the area which I really liked, so I put an offer in and bought it.

“The plot already had planning permission and I had meetings with three of four architects. The last meeting was with Paul Archer Design and I’m so glad I went with him. Paul is really good at working with challenging sites like this. He makes the most of the light, is great with details and is open to input and collaboration from clients. He lets the owners take the lead in things they feel strongly about. And he’s a great guy.

“I knew I wanted something open-plan with a lot of light. I wanted that timeless quality so that it didn’t look brand-new and you can’t tell what year it was built. I love the experimental Californian Case Study houses and the Desert Modernism style with the indoor-outdoor lifestyle that goes with it. It’s ambitious to think of a Palm Springs-type house in the middle of London, but the sunken living room was something that Paul came up with. It brings a modernist quality to the house, making the space feel light and spacious. Paul took advantage of every centimetre of the plot, taking the kitchen up to the boundary wall. He managed to fit in two bedrooms and a good sized bathroom with really generous storage throughout the house, which is so important to me. I didn’t mind what size the bedrooms were, as I spend almost all of my time downstairs.

“The house is full of unexpected vistas because of Paul’s clever details, like the gap he left in the first floor, alongside the very sculptural staircase. It means that shafts of sunlight come straight down into the living room from the skylight at the top of the house and I can sit on the sofa and look up and see blue sky overhead.

“We used three materials on the exterior: brick, European oak and anodised aluminium. This was echoed inside with the use of poured concrete, European oak again and brass for the detailing. The concrete has a beige-brown, almost copper-coloured element to it and it has been slightly polished to a soft sheen – just enough to reflect the light. Together with the five-finger oak floor it has a timeless feel. I tried to be quite creative with how I joined the two floor materials, to break up the space in a more interesting way. In the same way the oak shelving in the kitchen isn’t perfectly centred, I think it makes the house feel more cosy, without losing its minimalist edge.

“I was really involved in the interiors because I enjoy thinking about all the details – from where my plants will go, to the best position for all the plug sockets. It’s the same multi-layered thinking I apply to my art practice. I don’t work in a set medium – it depends on the idea and the brief, and then I apply whatever’s appropriate to that, whether it’s a performance at the South Bank or a converted van to explore the idea of grief. In the same way, I’ve renovated a lot of houses but they’ve all been quite different – Victorian, thirties, fifties – so I approached each project in a different way. One of the few constants of my style is that I like white. I grew up in Cyprus where it’s very light and sunny, so I’m always trying to bring that white light into English buildings. And being an artist, I enjoy the white space of a gallery.

“Wood is another key element for me. Paul chose a brilliant contractor for this job: Ben Hardwick of B&A Woodworking. Ben is the most talented joiner. He created the staircase, the kitchen and the bespoke cabinetry in the living room. Plants are another thing that’s important to me. We had a lot of house plants when I was growing up, without them a space can feel a bit lifeless to me. Lots of mid-century houses have integrated planters so we incorporated that detail here with a planted area under the stairs. I continued the plant idea in the bedroom with the lush greenery of a banana leaf-patterned wallpaper which makes a nice surprise in there.

“Aside from the dining table, which Ben made using the same pure white Corian top as the kitchen worksurfaces, all the furniture is mid-century design that I have been collecting for many years. It’s the type of furniture that I grew up with. My parents were very glamorous and both so well-dressed, we lived in a white-rendered apartment in Nicosia with lots of teak and terrazzo and great furniture.

“I was never very good at having a separate studio, it’s a bit like the gym – I tend not to go! I love to work from home now, at the kitchen table, because the light is so good. I’m not distracted from my work because the space is very efficient with lots of storage, a great utility room and everything designed to be quick and easy to clean – with details like flat skirting boards that don’t gather dust. But it’s also a great house for entertaining and parties because people can move easily between the living room, the kitchen and the courtyard – I like to fill all the brick perforations out there with candles. It feels like we’re back in the cocktail era of those Palm Springs houses …”