We’re continuing this year’s Best of est series with our foray into film. In 2023, we were fortunate to step inside the homes of globally renowned architects and designers as part of our Where Architects Live, At Home With and Home Tour film series. From UK architect Richard Found’s reworked 19th-century stone cottage in the Cotswolds to Sydney architect William Smart’s home and studio in a former 1950s warehouse, these are the five best-loved films by est living for 2023.
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At Home with Designer Louisa Grey
London-based design studio House of Grey’s Home of Holism was born from their desire to revolutionise the concept of the workplace to encompass all aspects of daily life. The space is an adaptive working studio for the House of Grey team and a tranquil home retreat for founder Louisa Grey. “Our new Home of Holism reveals where and how our founder lives and how we work together daily,” studio manager, Francesca Gill says. “Here, people can experience ‘Circular Salutogenic Design’ and the House of Grey feeling for themselves.” In an exclusive film with Bauwerk Colour, Louisa Grey took us on an intimate tour through her Victorian home in London.
Words by Holly Beadle
At Home with Designer John Pawson
London designer John Pawson is often referred to as a minimalist which can be misleading. His spare and reductive aesthetic is imbued with the warmth of his nuanced material palette, and a carefully calibrated sense of space and light ensures beauty is omnipresent. As part of our At Home With film series, we stepped inside John Pawson’s ‘Home Farm’ in the Cotswolds, England. Once a derelict series of rural buildings including a 17th-century farmhouse, cottage, stables, a barn and pigsties sprouting giant hogweed, there has been a complete shedding of generations of detritus, an architectural paring back combined with a considered material insertion and careful planning of spatial flow.
Words by Karen McCartney
Architect Richard Found’s Cotswolds Home
As part of our Where Architects Live film series, Found Associates founder and architect Richard Found, based in London, invited est living to his Cotswolds home. Richard bought the original early 19th-century gatekeeper’s cottage set on a 16-acre site of woodlands and lake with plans for a county retreat for himself and his family. He had ambitious plans for a new build when a Grade 2 heritage listing scuppered any notions of demolition and instead demanded a re-think of the approach to the site. “The local planners were very keen for the cottage to remain the dominant feature on the site therefore the extension needed to be set back,” he says.
Words by Karen McCartney
Inside JUMA Architects’ Home and Studio
This year, we also travelled to Belgium to capture JUMA Architects founders and directors Mathieu Luyens and Julie Van De Keere’s family home and studio in Sint-Martens-Latem. “Sint-Martens-Latem is one of the most coveted villages in Belgium,” Mathieu says, “Not only because of its green environment but because it’s a creative village.” It’s here Mathieu and Julie conceptualised their brick home, where they live with their two daughters and feline friend Cookie. It’s also where you’ll find their adjoining studio – all built around ‘unique and irreplaceable trees’. “We all know the benefits of a green environment,” Mathieu says. “It calms you down, it brings a lot of positivity, and it also boosts your productivity and your creativity. I think that’s a really big advantage for living and working here,” the architect adds.
Words by Sophie Lewis
The Home and Studio of Architect William Smart
Earlier this year, Sydney architect William Smart launched our Where Architects Live film series with his studio and home. Recipient of numerous architectural awards from the Australian Institute of Architects, including the prestigious Sir Arthur G. Stephenson Award, the home of William Smart and his team of 48 is breathtaking. Located at Alexandria, in one of Sydney’s conservation areas, what was formerly a 1950s warehouse has become a capsule of William’s enormous talent. William retained many of the original features, such as the steel trusses, but created an entirely new vision of how his team could work and how he and his partner could live.
Words by Stephen Crafti
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