View of the sunken seating area known as ‘the snug’
Our client is a property development company fronted by two brothers. (A bit like interior design firm Candy & Candy, but more secretive.) They specialise in the West London property market, specifically high-end properties in Kensington and Chelsea. On this project they had ventured further south though, to develop a smaller but architecturally pleasing property in Fulham.
The brothers had a number of bigger projects requiring their attention at the time, so rather than do the building work themselves, they decided to get planning and then sell the site to another developer.
It is at the selling stage that we came in.
View of the existing house and modern extension
The existing lodge was in the grounds of a cemetery just off Fulham Palace Road. The architect, Richard Bell, won planning permission to add a modern extension to the south side. The new addition opens up the interior and includes a large kitchen, a family and living room, and, our favourite bit, a sunken seating area – the ‘snug’ as it became known. (I think everyone on the project imagined spending a cold winter’s evening in the snug, next to the open fire.)
View of the glass connection between the existing building and modern extension
View of the Giacometti sculpture
LOCATION
London, UK
WHAT WE DID
1 x exterior image
2 x interior images
TEAM
Ingus, Inese, Juris
TIMING
3 weeks
FUN FACT
The site is just a few metres from a graveyard so who knows what will be found when they dig the new basement.
We’d worked with the brothers on a couple of occasions, so we all knew each other well, and most importantly they knew what they could get from us.
View of the timber fins and connection between old and new
I used Harris Kalinka to produce images for a proposed house in London in order to show design intent and to sell the project. After providing architectural drawings of only moderate detail along with a few sketches and reference images they modelled what until then, existed largely only in my head, to an uncanny degree of a accuracy. Harris Kalinka seem to ‘get it’ straight away, they are able to fill in the gaps and ask all the right questions; this no doubt owes to their background in architecture.
I look forward to my next project with them
Richard Bell
Architect
The brothers and the property agent felt it was important to show potential buyers:
We also felt we could help communicate the project and its architecture through showing:
View of the open plan kitchen and dining room
After we created the 3D model, we spent some time setting up interesting camera angles that sought to achieve these things. Much like a photographer, until you actually look through the lens, it is very difficult to judge if it will be a successful composition or not. By exploring the 3D model and showing quick previews to everyone involved we quickly identified the views that would be most successful.
The proposed extension had only been designed in as much detail as was needed to obtain planning permission. If you are familiar with the planning process, you will know that this means that there was still a lot of designing to be done before it could be built (even as a 3D model to create the CGI images). Like most architects who have nurtured a project to this stage, Richard had a good idea of how the interior might look in terms of surface finishes. But to really sell the vision we wanted to take it one step further, showing smaller details, such as what objects a potential buyer might have on the coffee table. This started an enjoyable collaboration that saw both architect and artist (I’m starting to like our new name) suggesting different objects to show in the interior.
Aerial view of the modern extension connected to the existing building
The property agent had suggested that to sell the property the artist’s impressions needed to be included in a designed brochure that could be either be downloaded, sent out by email, or given out as a printed hard copy.
For the design of the brochure we recommended the services of Brighton-based designers Stoats & Weasels. We’ve worked with them before, and knew they would be a safe pair of hands. When you’re trying to sell a property that is worth upwards of £2 million, a potential buyer expects to receive a brochure that is well designed.
The good news is the property sold for the full asking price within days of being put on the market. We are pleased to say there is no bad news.
