Design District director Helen Arvanitakis on the need for joy and conviviality in a post-pandemic home at her remodelled Victorian house in Hammersmith
Step inside the home of Helen Arvanitakis, director of London’s new Design District at Greenwich Peninsula, in our new film. As Helen opens the door to her reconfigured Victorian family home in Hammersmith, a space filled with modernist and contemporary design, she reflects on the nature of a post-pandemic home, from the changing relationship we have with our kitchen tables to the need for a sense of conviviality and fun. Watch the film here.
Thinking about how the spaces in which we work and live will change in a post-pandemic world is something that preoccupies much of Helen’s working day. As director of London’s new Design District – a collection of 16 buildings designed by studios such as 6a, SelgasCano, David Kohn, Architecture 00 and Mole Architects on Greenwich Peninsula, opening this summer – Helen has the task of putting the 12,500 sq m of office, studio and workshop space on the map – both literally and metaphorically. “The genie is out of the bottle in terms of people working away from home,” she says, “but space and time for people to come together is also really important.”
Emphasis on the value that physical space has in bringing people together is also evident in Helen’s home, a former two-dwelling Victorian house in Hammersmith, west London. The building was renovated and extended by Studio 30 Architecture to become a light-filled home for Helen and her family, where the large garden-facing kitchen and dining room is at the heart of the project.
Much of the design is centred around improving the way the house functions for modern family life – spaces were reconfigured to better flow from one to another and a new playroom and storage was added to the basement extension. “It was a combination of making our lives easier and working out how to make the mechanics of family life run as smoothly as possible, but also offering up spaces and moments where we can just relish in pure joy,” says Helen.
And relish Helen has. To find out exactly how, watch the film here. And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to see our new films as they come out, and check out our new series on modern craftsmanship and design, Modern Makers.
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