Deco mag Spring '17 issue

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usiness profile: fiona naylor Greener development Southbank Place interior architect Fiona Naylor of Johnson Naylor argues big developments do focus on sustainability Interview: Abby Trow If you’ve walked along the South Bank from the London Eye down towards Tate Modern, you will have walked past the long overdue re-development of the whole Waterloo area, work on which got underway last year. When the tower blocks are completed at the end of 2019 there’ll be a very swish and vibrant new live/work community, called...what else..Southbank Place. And certainly lucky you if you’ve put down a deposit on one of the apartments in 30 Casson Square, one of the residential towers, because you’ll have glorious central London on your doorstep, and you’ll be living in an apartment designed by Fiona Naylor and her team at interior architect firm Johnson Naylor. If you’re someone who shudders at the sight of all the development going on in big cities around the world, lamenting the use of all that energy, all that concrete, and all the ensuing emissions, well yes.. but unless we stop having children and move back to living on the land then the fact is people need somewhere to live and they want to be in cities because that’s where the jobs are. Southbank Place isn’t a development that will address the acute affordable housing shortage in London because it’s yet another luxury development - a two-bed apartment costs around £1.2 million and a three-bed penthouse from £3.6 million. Nor is it a pioneering green development built with straw bales coated with photovoltaic cells with a small farm on the roof so residents can be kept supplied with fresh eggs and milk. But it is, says Fiona Naylor, who led the interior architecture and design of apartments in the One York Square block as well as 30 Casson Square - evidence that building standards are high, that the built environment is, largely, becoming something to be praised from an environmental perspective. ‘Firstly, government legisation has forced developments to be energy efficient,’ says Naylor - and this is crucial because nearly 30 per cent of CO2 emissions have come from the built environment. ‘And when I look at Southbank Place, and it’s a £1bn plus development, it’s been hugely well thought out and it could well be here for hundreds of years.’ New developments have to meet Lifetime Homes standards - a set of 16 criteria based on sustainability, inclusivity accessibility, adaptability and good value. And vouching for Johnson Naylor’s work on Southbank Place, she says eco/sustainability considerations are part and parcel of what they do. Interior architecture A lot of us don’t really know how an interior architect differs from an interior designer or an architect. Naylor explains that it’s her job to take the raw architect plans for a space Deco mag 10
Deco mag 11 Left: Southbank Place bathrooms are built off-site in the UK and the entire pod is popped into place. These elegant bathrooms feature water-saving showers, EU marble and porcelain tiles Below: a studio flat. Storage is vital for small-space living, as are great finishes and attention to detail Above: Fiona Naylor says her work is all about making homes to such a high standard that they’ll last for decades without anyone wanting to put in a new kitchen or bathroom ‘We work hard to source products in the UK/EU and to use British craftspeople. We don’t want to deplete any rainforests.’ Apartments have been designed to use minimal energy, with LED lighting throughout. European hardwood flooring gives a light Scandinavian feel, while judicious use of marble adds a touch of luxury and basically to re-plan it, to optimize the layout to achieve the best use of space. ‘The plans have to be really sweated and we will work with the architect to improve them. We look at fenestration and solar gain (where to place windows so people don’t boil alive in summer), at the positioning of balconies. We develop the scheme, improve it, we move things and we add layers by bringing in our design skills.’ ‘It’s very involved and it’s a 3D exercise because we have the plans drawn in 3D so we can really get the feel for how it will be to live in the aparment and make it feel great. For example, we try to max out the ceiling height, as people want high ceilings.’ Energy efficiency is one of the first things to think about and Naylor says thank heavens for LEDs, which mean lighting schemes no longer have to drain the National Grid and cost a fortune to run. ‘The lighting scheme is one of the first things we do and it’s one of the most important because poor lighting ruins everything and it does affect us psychologically. ‘We’ve moved away from ceilings full of spotlights and have horizontal and vertical lighting, lighting that’s layered, dimmable, that’s appropriate for the task and to highlight features. We use a DALI lighting control system because we want to limit the number of switches on the walls, but it’s pretty straightforward, we like to keep things simple.’ When it comes to flooring, Naylor says hardwood is the material of choice for her and Deco mag 11
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Deco mag Spring '17 issue

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