Casa Tunel v Au September2015

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Blogger and model CANDICE LAKE had reservations about taking up

residence in an old RAILWAY ARCH, but her husband’s visionary

extension transformed the gloomy,damp space into a tranquil, light-

filled new home. By Matthew Bell.

300 – SEPTEMBER 2015

The bright open-planliving room, with a sofa

from Pacific Greenfurniture, and, above,

a first-floor galleryused for storage.



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hen Candice Lake’s husband

announced that he had bought adisused railway arch, and that they were going to leave their beautifulBattersea home in London to live init, she wasn’t exactly thri lled. “I waslike, noooo waaaay!” says the model,

blogger, photographer and Vogue Australia’s own contributingstyle editor. “You wouldn’t believe what it was like: dirty, damp,and it shook every time a train went overhead.”

Actually, I can believe it. o find Lake’s home, you have to trekdeep into south London, to a part of town that doesn’t really havea name, between Elephant & Castle, Walworth and Camberwell. You pick your way past various garages operating out ofneighbouring arches and find a random Narnia-like door, on itsown in a brick wall in the next-door arch. When taxi drivers dropher off, they’re bewildered that someone so glamorous could live inthis no-man’s land, and they always wait to make sure she’s safe.

Once inside, it’s as if you’ve gone through the back of the wardrobe and into a world of light and brightness and nattyknickknacks. Lake’s architect husband, Didier Ryan ofUndercurrent Architects (under which the project was designedand delivered), is little short of a genius. In what was once a dampcavern, he has created a warm and luxurious home where you canbarely hear the trains shuttling to Brighton overhead.

He must have quite an imagination: when he bought the arch atauction in 2011, it was just another decrepit garage with achequered history: as recently as the 80s, it was still being used for

cock-fighting and acid-fuelled raves; wild buddleia was growingout of the brickwork; and there was a suspended floor in the middle.

W

302 – SEPTEMBER 2015

Candice Lake and her husband DidierRyan outside their London home. Above right: school laboratorywork surfaces were used in thekitchen. Below: looking down

into the light-filled add-on.



Lake and Ryan, both expat Australians, met in their home

country, although she was living in New York and he was alreadybased in London when they fell in love six years ago.

It was at a pool party in Sydney – they got off to an inauspiciousstart when he declared he would never live in New York and shesaid she hated London. “He was really standoffish and I was prancingaround in an amazing big hat and a bikini-macramé outfit, and I remember thinking he wasn’t interested in me at all,” she says.

An hour later, she did a backflip into thepool and he was intrigued. wo months later,she was at Heathrow with her entire lifepacked up in suitcases, thinking: “What amI doing? I don’t even know this guy.” Teynow have a one-year-old son, Arden Pierre.

Converting the space was largely Ryan’sproject. Because the arch is part of the nationalrailway network, tinkering with the structure was tricky. So he came up with the idea of creating a sort ofsuspended bubble inside, like a trouser pocket. Tis means thehouse is insulated from all the damp and noise and doesn’t eventouch the arch around it.

One of their shared loves is natural light: a problem when youlive in a tunnel. But Ryan thought of a way around this too. At theopen end, he built a protruding full-height extension that, throughundulations and cleverly positioned windows, captures daylightand reflects it back into the room. “Australians are obsessed withlight,” says Lake. “Especially in this grey country; you need a light,

bright space.” Ryan agrees, adding that: “In Australia, it’s so bright you’re always preventing light from coming in. Here it’s the

opposite. Te light’s so soft that you’re trying to grab it as much as

you can. And that’s what this [extension] does: it’s all about scoopinglight up wherever you can and bouncing it back into the arch.” Te layout of their home is not dissimilar to the artists’ studios

of Kensington and Chelsea – essentially one giant room with a fewlittle cupboard bedrooms and bathrooms off it, furnished with

items picked up at bric-a-brac shops. Teirtastes are modern and simple with a retrotwist, such as 70s Ercol wooden chairs. It’s theideal party house, and they also use it for their work: Lake as a location for fashion shootsand Ryan as a venue for exhibitions of hisdesigns. So what of London’s thousands ofother railway arches? Plenty are used as trendyoffices or gritty nightclubs, but, amazingly,this is the first one to have been turned intoa home. No wonder it was named Home ofthe Year in the 2013 New London Awards.

Ryan has since been swamped with requests to do more like it,although he is resisting for the moment. “I like trying new things,”he explains. “I wouldn’t want to get stuck doing the same thingover and over again.”

Despite the insulation, you can still hear the odd rumble.“I actually love it,” says Lake. “I find it kind of romantic. And,believe it or not, this is the quietest house I’ve ever lived in, so thatoccasional bit of noise brings some life into the house, whichI like.” Cleverly, they also kept the house in Battersea, which theyrent out, but who knows where their jobs might take them next.

Still, it would be a shame if Arden Pierre never got to throwa massive party here. ■

“IT’S ALL ABOUTSCOOPING LIGHTUP WHEREVER YOU CAN ANDBOUNCING IT

BACK INTOTHE ARCH”

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P H I L I P S I N D E N

The home’s extension, whichincludes kitchen, bedroomsand bathrooms, and, farright, as it appears fromthe outside, dramatically cladin steel. Below right: thecouple in the dining areawith their son, Arden Pierre.

Casa Tunel v Au September2015

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