Creating an open plan 1: the idea

 

London houses are not famous for their big sizes, and very often our houses are made of smaller rooms which had their particular function in the past but can now feel rather small, oppressive and difficult to use. The solution to this is the creation of a bigger space by removing some internal walls. As we create a bigger space inside our walls means we are going to use the available space in a different way, and by opening the space, most of the time we gather in one place different functions.

This sort of multifunctional space has many advantages; for example people use less and less a formal dining room, so it all makes sense to have the dining area linked together with the kitchen area, instead of having two different smaller rooms. This is a way to create a new heart of the house, a warm place where the whole family can gather and enjoy each other’s company.

It is to solve this problem that I have been called a few times, and I have decided to share one of these experiences. For the following project I was called to create a bigger kitchen. As you can see on the rendering the house had three small rooms which were used as a kitchen (a small room, isolated at the end of the house that you accessed going down three steps) an un-used office and the third room which was supposed to be the dining room and was more a passage way leading to the kitchen as it was too narrow to host a proper dining table.

Plan of the space before

 

The client called me in to see how to improve the kitchen, with the idea of removing one wall (the wall between the un-used office and the kitchen) and create a bigger space. I explained that it was a very good idea but that removing this wall would create a long and narrow space which would be only half of an improvement. I proposed to remove the two internal walls separating the three rooms and create a frankly bigger space; the idea was very well received by the client who could suddenly see a brand new set of possibilities. I also proposed to raise the flooring in the kitchen so it would unify the whole space.

Proposed opening of the space

Now there are many opportunities to create a fantastic room with a big feeling of space. We'll see next how to do this.

Emmanuelle Lemoine