renovation
Going Off Script
Playfully flouting convention, an American-born architect creates a deceptively spacious home for herself in a tiny London apartment.
text by Iain Aitch photos by Jason Larkin project Notting Hill Residence architect Johanna Molineus Architects, johannamolineus.com location London, England
Johanna Molineus’s peripatetic childhood is reflected in the Chinese and Central Asian textiles and objects found throughout her small London apartment, including a squarepatterned horse blanket (left). The kitchen (top) is equipped with a custom Statuario marble countertop, shelf, and sink.
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Johanna Molineus doesn’t initially come across as the poster girl for rulebreaking. But the Washington, D.C.– born architect’s 678-square-foot central London apartment is a testament to how bending, breaking, and even burning the rule book is sometimes the best way to create a remarkable home. The first rule that Molineus tossed aside was the bedrock assumption in the oversubscribed London property market that two bedrooms are always better than one. As her real estate– minded friends scratched their heads and tutted in that oh-so-British manner, Molineus set about recasting what she saw as an impossibly small two-bedroom apartment into a one-bedroom living space that, in spite of its tiny footprint, is made for entertaining. Not many London houses boast enough space for a dining table for eight, to say nothing of a top-floor apartment that overlooks one of the APRIL 2015 DWELL
