Explore Simon Allford’s ‘family home in the sky’ in our new film series

Film Edmund Cook
Photography Elliot Sheppard

Regular readers of the Journal know we’re big on the idea of home. As well as shelter, the best homes provide their inhabitants with psychological sustenance and physical support; they can nourish our minds, look after our bodies and provide us with the comfort we need to allow life to play out in all its complicated ways. Another uniting factor behind the best homes is their adherence to certain design principles: space, light, materials, nature and decoration. It doesn’t matter if you live in a stately, a semi or a studio, these tenets – the framework of our co-founder Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live – can, as Matt says, “allow you to live a better and more fulfilled life”.

One person who knows that better than most is Simon Allford, co-founder of highly decorated architectural practice AHMM, chair of the board of trustees of the Architecture Foundation and former president of the RIBA. It’s precisely why Matt’s chosen Simon as the first subject in our new film series, Homing In, which takes his book’s guiding principles and combines them with the personal stories of home we share on our podcast of the same name, all with a view to inspiring us all to live more thoughtful and contented lives.

A prime contender for the exploration of space, our first theme, Simon’s home is extraordinary, perched “in the sky”, spreading across the top floors of a Marylebone mansion block. Shifting over the decades he’s had it, it’s a masterclass in adaptation, changing as it has from bachelor pad to young couple’s lodgings to hardworking family home. Seen as a whole, Simon says, the apartment is “the long history of family life captured not in a photo album but in the spaces in which you’re in”. It’s also, importantly to the architect, full of details designed to delight – disappearing doors, concealed cupboards and hidden televisions – clever, beautiful, useful moments that satisfy and make sense. These are, to Simon, the ultimate expression of “the idea that, at its best, architecture can bring some joy to a sometimes grey world”.

Watch the full film here and tell us what you think in the comments, before subscribing to our YouTube channel. And stay tuned for the extended version, coming soon, as well as the rest of the films following this spring, featuring the likes of lighting designer Michael Anastassiades, Tom Bartlett of Waldo Works, and artist, florist and stylist Yasuyo Harvey. Happy watching.the m