Paul Vonberg Architects

The presence of unattainable 'spacial loops' reminds the client, in the manner of memento mori, that his wealth cannot take him everywhere. By Paul Vonberg Design Team: Paul Vonberg MA (Cantab) Dip Arch RIBA AABC Jonathan Pyecroft BSc (Hons) CSWP Photography: Lewis Bush

The 'Travel Planning Room' is essentially a room in which a man may engage with the world, but in private, where he may process his experiences and plan his strategies, as well, of course, booking his flights, his operas, his exhibitions and his hotels. All these things, this client prefers to do himself. This enthusiasm for travel (some three hundred flights a year) finds its focus in the doubly revolving globe above his desk.

One might consider the central circularity of the Conversation Room in the context of the Pantheon, The British Museum Reading Room, or Asplund's Stockholm City Library. Equally, the Travel Planning Room lives in a continuum which includes the study of St Jerome (as envisaged by Antonello da Messina) as well as various Studioli from the Italian Renaissance; that in the Ducal Palace at Gubbio springs to mind. Again, the tapering space which forms the neck of the Travel Planning Room has its origins in the First Floor Landing of Asplund's Villa Snell. The use of polished hardwood veneers recalls the interiors of Loos and, last but by no means least, the strategy of creating space which appears to have been carved out of solid (with supporting functions housed within 'poché') refers the visitor to both Nolli's plans of Rome and to the Parisian hotels of the C18. It is not accidental that he architect has spent much of the last twenty-five years altering and repairing rooms within Grade 1 Listed buildings in Westminster and the City of London. The interiority which the Reform Club achieves with marble and scagliola, this apartment does with richly figured timber veneers, polished copper and specialist sculpted finishes. The extraordinary door which separates the Lobby from the Travel Planning Room embodies a whole architectural theory in itself, being formed not as an object but simply as part of the enclosure around the two rooms it divides.

Both ends of the apartment have raised floors to bring the owner closer to the windows and the views beyond. Although the owner rarely eats at home, when he does, the table looking downstream towards the River Thames and Canary Wharf must be one of the best seats in London. Meanwhile, at the other end, a chair on which one might sit to look at files, also looks directly upstream towards the Shard. The views have become a crucial part of the architectural design.

A Guest Bathroom without bath or shower (the owner never has guests to stay). An intimate space, where the dressing table mirrors the finish of the Conversation Room and also echoes an opera house in miniature.

Paul Vonberg Architects transforms London Dockside apartment. Superficially, this is just a Bachelor Pad with odd shaped rooms in a vast 1980'd brick ziggurat in London's Docklands. Closer inspection reveals, however, a serious, albeit small, piece of architecture which meets a very specific set of functional requirements as well as offering depth and resonance to a cultured and thoughtful client. The client (a Yorkshire born coal trader and bachelor, with fluent Spanish, a history of motor biking, a passion for opera and a love of the colour purple) was not looking for flexibility. He wished for specific places to be provided for conversation, for reading, for planning his travels, and for listing to music, as well as storage designed specifically for his books, CD's and papers. These very particular requirements are met by rooms with very particular sizes and shapes.

The Conversation Room: The circular Conversation Room is the focus of the whole place and this is borne out by the geometries of the other spaces whose plans point towards it. Every place where the client may sit, has its back to a wall and so feels immediately safe and secure. One might say that the apartment has a high level of 'interiority', also engendering feelings of security. That said, different levels of interiority reflect the different moods required. The Travel Planning Room is intense and dark, but with bright light falling on the desk and globe, encouraging concentration. Meanwhile the Conversation Room is open and relaxed. The Guest Bathroom is intimate. The Lobby is like the coal mine from which the owner's wealth emanates and provides and anticipatory mood prior to entering the rooms proper. The moods achieved by the solid parts of the architecture are enhances by a complex lighting design in which the owner has only to select simply titled 'scenes' with names such as 'I am chatting', I am dreaming, or even 'I am cleaning'.

The extensive CD library is accompanied by a curved step which is ostensibly required to support the boiler room door but 'just happens' also to suggest a conductor's podium. Meanwhile, bespoke display cases exhibit a variety of objects important to the owner, including the glazed pottery head of a helmeted motorcyclist and a small collection of coronation mugs which once belonged to the owner's grandmother.