Dwell - May / June 2022 (extract)

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dwell.com May / June 2022

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Los Angeles–based actor and director Satya Bhabha had a nomadic upbringing, spending time in the U.K. and India before settling in the U.S. But the one home Satya and his family have held on to since he was born is a ground-floor apartment in a Georgian terrace house in North London.

The residence is “very personal to my family,” he says, which is why, despite his still-peripatetic existence, Satya has kept the apartment, renting it out during his extended absences from London.

The home sits between contrasting green spaces. Highbury Fields, a bustling public park full of dog walkers and young families, is across the street from the front kitchen and living area, while in back, two bedrooms face a lush private garden that functions as “an intimate extension of the house,” says Satya.

Prior to its reconfiguration

by London architecture firm Patalab, the central staircase of Satya Bhabha’s Islington flat was a “weird, liminal space,” he says. Now, painted in a blue from Dulux, the passageway is the sensuous heart of an otherwise spare and neutral interior.

Change of Scene In London, a dramatic blue stairway amps up the allure of an actor’s apartment.

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PHOTOS BY | @JULIAN_ABRAMS_PHOTO

Amrita Raja

Julian Abrams

MAY/J U N E 2022

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“ Opening up the view from the fields to the garden changes the way the whole flat functions.””

SATYA BHABHA, RESIDENT

To restore the original Georgian proportions in the living area, Patalab shortened an entry hall and repositioned the kitchen (top), which is illuminated at night by a 1965 pendant by Paavo Tynell. The designers used painted SLV Plastra wall lights in the stairwell (above) and throughout the apartment.

But because of a 20th-century alteration, the bedrooms were connected to the rest of the apartment by a few steps in an awkward, small central room that complicated movement—and blocked the sight line—from front to back. To improve the flow, Satya called on Londonand Berlin-based architectural practice Patalab, which replaced a section of wall in the stair room with open shelving that lets in more daylight as well as views of the surrounding greenery. That kind of transparency is typical of the Georgian period, “when you could look through a building and see the garden behind,” says Patalab founder and director Uwe Schmidt-Hess.

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The stairway now forges a visual and physical connection between the apartment’s front and back, but it’s more than a mere passageway. With its walls, ceiling, and floors painted a deep cobalt blue, the room is also a focal point of the home.

“We imagined making this space an event in itself,” says Patalab project architect Dora Hartridge. “At parties, you might stand around on the staircase with drinks, chatting with someone.”

Inspired by Satya’s love of jewel tones, the saturated hue dramatically accents the apartment’s otherwise neutral palette and the greenery beyond. “In having this dark void,” he says, “you think more of the light on the other side.”

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Rock Face ARCHITECT LOCATION

Patalab Architects London, England

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Entrance Kitchen Living Area Stair Room Bathroom Bedroom

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ILLUSTRATION: LOHNES+WRIGHT

“I like that from both sides of the flat you can see green space,” says Andrea Batignani, who currently rents the apartment from Satya. Andrea is excited about summer picnics in Highbury Fields, just across the street from the townhouse (right), and hosting small gatherings in the private back garden (far right).

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MAY/J U N E 2022

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