Living with Timber: At Home with Benni Allan

Experimentation is the driving force that allows EBBA, the London-based architecture and design practice, to effortlessly blur the lines between product, people and place. The multidisciplinary team, led by founder Benni Allan, are continually exploring new connections across the worlds of fashion, art, and music – resulting in a diverse yet confident body of work that ranges from installations to interiors.

We caught up with Benni at his home in east London, the recently completed project titled “Living with Timber”, to discuss the roles of curiosity and collaboration when bringing ideas to life.

I bought the flat last year and when I arrived it had lots of odd additions. This warehouse is actually the oldest building in the area. It was a tea factory, and the renovation to turn it into flats was originally done very badly.

The kitchen was built in a way that didn’t seem very functional for me. The thing that drew me to purchasing it was the idea that it could be opened up. The flat is set out on a north-south axis, so it was all about figuring out how to create more open, well proportioned spaces that benefit from the south light.

I think corridors are useless spaces, and it was really important to try and maximize the area for the living and bedrooms. So in removing part of the corridor, I was able to carve a bit of additional living space along with a nook that functions as a utility cupboard.

Being the last flat of the building, it borrows the angle of the external wall. For me, it was really important to try and do something that took away that angle, to create a straighter, calmer space. One way of doing that was to introduce this big piece of joinery that conceals a lot of the kitchen, and it has this double-stagger which deals with the angle really nicely. In doing that, I’ve also created really deep storage.

A calm environment is all about trying to have as much storage as possible, because it means you can put everything away. 

For me, it’s really important to create spaces, especially in homes, that feel calming and allow you to reconnect with yourself.

I’ve always wanted to create a space that celebrates the use of timber, hence the name “Living with Timber”. I also like the idea of having spaces that feel quite raw. So we’ve kept the raw plaster on the walls. We’ve also enhanced the tone of the timber, so it has this sort of soft, pink quality.

For me, those characteristics of timber are really important because it connects you to nature. It gives you warmth, no matter what time of day it is, even if it’s a dark, cloudy day. I get re-energized when I come into this space.

The joinery itself was developed and built by one of my close friends. We’ve worked together for years, and the main idea was to try and create a kitchen that was able to be enclosed and put away when not needed.

A lot of the ideas we developed over time, like concealing the oven and concealing the fridge. They’re objects that make it very obvious that you’re in a kitchen. Even though it’s quite a small space, it feels much larger and grander because you don’t have those visual distractions. 

There’s two aspects to doing your own project. On the one hand, you have that creative freedom. On the other, you make decisions that you have to live with. We’re a practice that is all about experimentation, which gives us the ability to test and try different material techniques and finishing, which we’ve developed over the years.

For example, the floors are a Douglas fir plywood. It’s not a material that you would necessarily use for floors. But we developed a technique which essentially brings it up to the standard of a floor finish which is not something that a lot of clients will allow us to do. There’s sometimes a worry that it won’t last, but having this as our own project gave us that opportunity to experiment.

I love the texture, I love the patina, I love the waviness that you get in the wood. This project is a celebration of living with timber, but in particular living with Douglas fir.

I’ve always imagined creating a space that is both a space to live, and a space to show. I see the apartment as a bit of a gallery that will change over time – not only a space that can celebrate the work of friends and collaborators, but also a space that we can use to show our own designs as a practice.

The coffee table is part of a new collection that we’re developing using Douglas fir and thinking very carefully about zero-waste. The material is taken as a simple block, and then it’s cut at an angle. We celebrate and use the material in a different way to create these stacked objects which have sharp, angular elements.

We are also working with people like Olivia Bossy, who does these beautiful, intricate objects that have different meanings. The stand that we have currently holding the speaker was designed by her.

Music is a big part of my life, and has been since I can remember. We’ve been lucky to work with some incredible people on some other projects, including Friendly Pressure and Our Department. I asked them to see if we could develop a speaker, specially for the flat.

Again, we wanted to celebrate the use of the Douglas fir. It’s actually a material that’s quite hard to use for objects like this, but we wanted to see how far we could push it. It was the final touch for the project that showcases the things that I really love.

EBBA has been going for eight years, coming up to a decade. What’s really nice is that we’ve created a network of people that are on a similar journey to us. A lot of these projects are self-initiated, and it really gives us an ability to do the things that we love most.

An example of that is “Pulse” that we delivered at Houghton [Festival] recently. That was a coming together of ideas – the importance of connecting to nature and how sound can really impact you on a deeper level.

I hope that as we continue to grow and develop as a studio, we’re able to bring more of those interests and expertise to other projects.

This apartment is not only a place to test and experiment with materials, but also a place where I can make music, I can be messy. I want the apartment to be a place that is a continuing exploration of how you live with materials, how you use materials. It feels a real privilege to be in a space that offers that opportunity.

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