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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.

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