与木材相伴生活丨英国伦敦丨EBBA

When an architect renovates their own home, things get interesting. For Benni Allan, director of London practice EBBA, his newly completed home is both a personal sanctuary and a working laboratory for ideas that might otherwise remain on the cutting room floor.

The project titled Living with Timber is exactly what it suggests—an exploration of working and dwelling with this elemental material. Douglas fir dominates the space, appearing across walls, floors and joinery in a warm, consistent application that immediately sets a tone of calm and tactility. Allan used his own home to test how affordable materials can be finished and installed to actually last—useful intel for future projects.

The apartment functions as a live-come-showspace, a place imagined for living around objects that constantly change. Collected pieces sit alongside works from friends and collaborators, displayed in a gallery-like setting that allows Allan to continue developing ideas and exploring how we interact with the things we own.

The layout centres on a big open-plan kitchen and living area. A substantial piece of furniture conceals all kitchen workings behind large cupboards while cleverly addressing the sharp angle of the original building. This approach provides ample storage without compromising the calm brought by raw plaster surfaces and warm timber tones. The main bedroom opens to the kitchen through a full-height sliding door, allowing borrowed light to fill the space. A study connected from the corridor doubles as a making space, often filled with discarded materials awaiting their next experimental iteration.

Sustainability through resourcefulness shows up everywhere. Parts of the build use reclaimed elements, including mahogany parquet rescued from another EBBA project— a mews renovation where it would have ended up in a skip.

The project also let Allan chase his other interests in furniture and music. A stacked coffee table sits at the centre of the living space, part of a new collection the studio is developing. Custom speakers in douglas fir—designed with Friendly Pressure and Our Department—round things out. For now.

[Images courtesy of EBBA. Photography by Felix Speller.]