img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Through a glass, sparingly

If you want to make 26m2 of space appear twice as big, look no further than Spheron Architects’ Urban Hermitage, a small flat on the first floor of a Victorian house in Clapham, London. The firm was asked by the artist owner to transform it into a tranquil, hermetic cell, less bustling city and more ‘remote monastery in Belgium’. The folding mirror wall hiding the bed and storage, positioned opposite the discreet kitchen wall, is the understated but transformative centrepiece of the room. Atkinson & Kirby supplied its Concept range of stained, engineered flooring to complement the dark painted wall finishes and counterpoint the diffuse light from the floor to ceiling curtains, helping generate this sparingly Cistercian space.

Latest

Housebuilders are increasingly turning to large-scale 3D printing to deliver low-cost homes, but do the reported benefits around speed and reduced labour and waste add up? Stephen Cousins reports

Housebuilders are increasingly turning to large-scale 3D printing to deliver low-cost homes

Design an inclusive on-campus cricket centre, help establish a national waterfront destination, create a display piece for a unique urban environment - some of the latest architecture contracts and competitions from across the industry

Latest: cricket and education centre

Dominic McKenzie Architects’ Segmental House extension combines nods to Scandinavian modernism with references to the arches and Flemish bond of the existing building

Dominic McKenzie Architects’ extension combines Scandinavian modernism with references to the existing building

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, who set up SANAA 30 years ago, talk about how nature is both the context and inspiration for most of their work and how they aim to make architectural spaces where people come together

Practice founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa talk about their work over the past 30 years

While revenue growth hasn't kept up with the rising costs of running a practice, a surge in overseas work could help turn things around for UK practices, says RIBA head of economic research and analysis Adrian Malleson

A surge in overseas work could help boost revenue growth for UK practices