yinjispace

INTERIOR
McLaren Excell
PHOTOGRAPHY
Michael Sinclair
EDITOR
Gina
Collection

Award-winning architecture and interior studio McLaren.Excell has transformed a loft duplex in Old Street to create a series of minimalist spaces celebrating raw materials and industrial heritage.

Wanting to honour the legacy of the former factory’s origins, the client requested an unapologetically industrial design that would allow the structure of the building to shine while creating elegant, curated living spaces. The team at McLaren.Excell stripped back the apartment to expose its vast, structural concrete beams, layering these richly-textured junctures with smooth, putty-coloured plaster walls and black steel staircases.

This restrained palette – which also features Dinesen Douglas Fir flooring and textured stone – is continued throughout the apartment, linking the two floors and creating a pleasingly cohesive flow. In addition to the architectural framework, many of the statement furniture pieces in the duplex are also McLaren.Excell creations. The black steel dining table, for example, is a bespoke design from the studio, as are the pendant lights above it and the exquisitely curved stone bench and coffee table.

The series of spaces McLaren.Excell has created at The Factory exhibit a sense of visceral materiality that speaks to the building’s origins, while providing intriguing, light-filled spaces for the client to enjoy with family and friends.

Luke McLaren, co-founder of McLaren.Excell, commented: “Our aim with this project was to celebrate the building’s past while homogenising the space by selecting a really simple palette. Essentially, we picked two materials – Clayworks plaster finish and Dinesen Douglas Fir floor boards – and ran them throughout the apartment. We then added black steel and stone elements. This consistency makes the transitions from space to space feel effortlessly smooth and fluid. A former Nineties loft apartment now has a pleasing purity to it that celebrates the building’s heritage while providing inviting and enriching living spaces.”

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